OSCE supports advanced training course in Germany on addressing cross-border challenges in identification of foreign terrorist fighters

Participants during an OSCE-supported training course for 17 border security and management officers and counter-terrorism experts from participating States and Partners for Co-operation countries on the identification of foreign terrorist fighters, Garmish-Partenkirchen, 6 September 2016. (OSCE/Goran Stojkovski)

GARMISH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany, 7 September 2016 – An OSCE-supported training course for 17 border security and management officers and counter-terrorism experts from participating States and Partners for Co-operation countries on the identification of foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) concluded today in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany.

The one-week course is the second stage of a multi-phase project to establish the first ever OSCE multi-national and multi-agency mobile training team for the identification of FTF at the borders.

The OSCE Transnational Threats Department (TNTD) conducted the training course in close co-operation with the OSCE Border Management Staff College and with the support of the Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defence Academies and Security Studies Institute, the German representation at the George C. Marshall Center and the Security Governance Group.

The training course was supported by experts from international and regional organizations, including INTERPOL, the United Nations Counter Terrorism Center, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, as well as national experts from Austria, Finland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

The first deployment of the team is scheduled for late 2016.