Border officials from 18 countries trained at OSCE Border Management Staff College in Dushanbe

Zhanara Zhiterbayeva, participant from Kazakhstan, receives certificate for successful completion of the 9th Border Management Staff Course on 25 October 2013. (OSCE/Ilona Kazaryan)

DUSHANBE, 25 October 2013 – Today the closing ceremony of the 9th Staff Course for border officials from 18 countries was held at the OSCE Border Management Staff College in Dushanbe.

Twenty-six mid and senior-level officers of border, customs and drug control agencies from Afghanistan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Tajikistan, Tunisia and Ukraine attended the course.

The one-month training aimed at strengthening the capacities of border security practitioners. The training was designed and conducted in line with the OSCE Border Security and Management Concept. It integrates modern border management techniques and equips participants with thorough knowledge in border security and management. The course included sessions on combatting transnational threats and risks, trade facilitation and customs management, countering terrorism and extremism, integrity and anti-corruption, money laundering, trafficking in human beings, refugees and migration, as well as gender and leadership in border management.

“The course offers a unique platform for sharing experiences among participants from 18 countries; and we hope that this communication grows into effective partnerships,” said Henryk Raczkowski, the newly-appointed Director of the OSCE Border Management Staff College. “Each country has its own methods to tackle modern border management challenges but what they all have in common is a strong will to contribute to peace and security and making our borders safer.”

Nikolaos Anastasilakis, the Staff Course participant from Greece, said: “This course changed the way I was looking at the whole issue of border security; it provided me with innovative ideas on how to find better solutions to facilitate the movement of people and assets while carrying out my service at the border.”