Afghan, Tajik border officials complete OSCE, UNDP joint border management course

 

 

Students from the OSCE Border Management Staff College complete a practical exercise involving the search of vehicles, 28 August 2014. (OSCE/Ilona Kazaryan)

DUSHANBE, 28 August 2014 – Twenty border officers from Afghanistan and Tajikistan successfully completed a ten-day border management awareness course at the OSCE Border Management Staff College (BMSC) today.

The training course was co-organized with the EU-funded, UNDP-implemented Border Management Northern Afghanistan (BOMNAF) project. This project aims to improve the knowledge of Afghan and Tajik border professionals on international standards and procedures for passport control, detection of imposters and contraband.

The course included theory sessions and practical exercises on the nature and danger of transnational threats, information sharing and risk management, modern border control technologies, passenger assessment, vehicle search, migration and refugees, anti-corruption, trafficking in human beings, human rights, gender issues, and first aid skills.

The main principles and guidelines of the OSCE Border Security and Management Concept were also presented at the course.

“Bilateral, regional and international co-operation, and information exchange are vital in preventing contemporary transnational threats,” said Ilona Kazaryan, Chief of Development and Outreach of the OSCE Border Management Staff College. “This training is a concrete initiative that brings together border professionals from Afghanistan and Tajikistan to study together, work together and find common solutions to the problems discussed during the course.”

William Lawrence, BOMNAF Project Manager, said: “As part of our ongoing regional success story with OSCE, BMSC and our Tajikistan Border Force colleagues, I am pleased to say that we have once again together completed a most worthwhile and collaborative training event; this we intend to repeat in the future and throughout 2015.”