One-month Border Management Staff Course Concludes at OSCE Border Management Staff College in Tajikistan.

Daoud Hachemi (l), economic adviser at the Directorate-General of Economic Co-operation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Afghanistan, speaking at the border management staff course, Dushanbe, 20 October 2017. (OSCE/Nozim Kalandarov)

DUSHANBE, 27 October 2017 – The OSCE Border Management Staff College concluded its 19th Border Management Staff Course in Dushanbe today.

Twenty-four mid- to senior-level border and customs officials, from 13 OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation attended the course, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Australia, Belarus, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Jordan, Moldova, Montenegro, Tajikistan, and Ukraine.

The one-month course was designed according to the principles and standards of the OSCE Border Security and Management Concept, which covers the political-military, economic and environmental as well as human aspects of security.

Throughout the course, participants learned about the causes and forms of modern transnational threats, methods to encourage interagency cooperation, border management strategy development and implementation, customs controls for collection and protection of revenue, strategies to fight corruption, human rights and gender issues. They also compared various border security and regional cooperation models. Effective training techniques, leadership and management, as well as crisis communication approaches were also shared with the Staff Course attendees.

“By conducting this course, the College offers a platform for multinational dialogue among border security and management official and makes them work together towards developing possible solutions to existing and emerging transnational threats and challenges,” said Alexander Eliseev, Acting Director at the OSCE Border Management Staff College.

Ivayla Yordanova, Team Leader of the Mobile Unit at Border Police General Directorate of Bulgaria noted that during the course, she participated for the first time in a group research project. She plans to share the results of the exercise with colleagues working for her agency’s criminal investigation team.

David Zeine, Inspector at the Customs Compliance Branch of the Australian Border Force said: “There is a lot of talk about what should be done about coordinated border management that needs to be implemented. This course shows that people are actually acknowledging that something indeed needs to be done to improve cooperation.”

Vadym Alieksieienko, Officer of International Cooperation Department in the Field of Security at the State Border Service of Ukraine said that the Staff Course plants the seed of cooperation within the different agencies working to provide border management and security. “This seed may grow and come to fruition once we, the participants of the 19th staff course become decision makers at our agencies. Should an issue arise with a foreign counterpart, we may resolve it much easier simply because we studied together,” he added.

In the framework of the one-month course, the participants visited the nearby border post with Afghanistan, participated in group research projects and took part in a Roundtable on Afghanistan: “Regional Threat Screening 2017”. Distinguished scholars, international subject area experts, as well as diplomats participated in the discussion that focused on “The Organized Crime-Terror Nexus: Comprehensive Approach to Regional Security”.