Second OSCE BMSC Cross-Border Research Conference concludes with field trip to Tajik-Afghan border

Ambassador Enayatullah Nabiel, Senior Policy & Planning Advisor in the unit for Border Affairs and Security Co-operation at Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry participates in discussion on migration trends. 18 November 2014 (OSCE BMSC/ Eraj Asadulloev)

DUSHANBE, 24 November 2014 - The OSCE Border Management Staff College’s Second Cross-Border Research Conference, this year focusing on border security in the era of globalization and the challenges of migration, concluded on 21 November 2014 with a field trip to the Tajik-Afghan border.

The conference brought together eight practitioners and 20 researchers from 17 participating States - Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine, and two Partners for Co-operation, Afghanistan and Tunisia.

During the field trip, participants met their counterparts from border and customs agencies, and observed the infrastructure at the Tajik-Afghan border and the Tajikistan-side of the bridge over the river Panj. The trip marked the end of a five-day event which allowed participants to discuss different approaches to managing migration flows, trafficking in human beings and illegal and irregular migration as well as migratory trends in Central Asia.

“This conference was a rare opportunity for researchers to communicate with practitioners and vice-versa. Bringing these two categories of experts together contributed to making the debates and exchanges rich in findings and lessons learned,” said Ilona Kazaryan, Chief of Analysis and External Relations Unit at the OSCE Border Management Staff College.

Ambassador Enayatullah Nabiel, Senior Policy & Planning Advisor in the unit for Border Affairs and Security Co-operation at Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry, said: “This was an effective gathering that helped me and, I am sure, the other participants to have a better insight into the globalisation and migration-related issues that relevant authorities have to deal with. This conference was useful in making customs, border agencies and Ministries of Foreign Affairs aware of the necessity to share information. Finally, I am grateful this conference allowed us to discuss the idea that migration is not a crime, except when it has criminal intentions. Instead, we underlined it is a human phenomenon.”

Julien Thorez, research fellow at the French National Center for Scientific Research, said “The College has given us an excellent opportunity to meet with representatives of different administrative institutions whom we rarely encounter. This informal format has allowed us to compare sometimes very different points of view in a constructive way.”