Researchers and practitioners discuss innovative solutions to border issues at OSCE Border Management Staff College

Participants during a field trip to the Nizhni Pianj border-crossing point in Tajikistan, Tajik-Afghan Border, 10 December 2015. (OSCE/Alexander Eliseev)

DUSHANBE, 10 December 2015 – Innovative solutions to address border issues using new technologies and methods were discussed at the four-day OSCE Cross-Border Research Conference in Dushanbe which concluded today with a study trip to Tajikistan’s nearby border with Afghanistan.

Twenty-one researcher and senior-level officials from border, customs, drug control, anti-corruption agencies, as well as representatives of academia, regional and international organizations and the private sector from Afghanistan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Russia, Spain, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine took part.

“This year’s conference focused on current security trends and challenges and modern ways to resolve them,” said Dita Nowicka, Director of the OSCE Border Management Staff College. “With this in mind we focused not only on technical means and their value for money, but also on innovative methodologies to deliver adult border-related education, preventing corruption, transnational organized crime, irregular migration, and so on.”

Researchers providing their academic contributions to the conference represented the National Anti-corruption Centre of the Republic of Moldova, the National Border Guard Academy of Ukraine, the Law Enforcement University of Mongolia, the University of Gabes of Tunisia, the Strategic Research Centre under the President of Republic of Tajikistan, and the College’s affiliates such as the Border Troops Commanders' Council of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Iran Gul Saihoon, Research and Studies Manager from the Afghanistan Ministry of Counter Narcotics said: “This event is invaluable in terms of information and experience exchange on new technology that helps to keep our borders safe.”

Stanislav Filipov, Associate Professor of the National Academy of the State Border Service of Ukraine, said: “The College’s cross-border conference is an ideal forum for an open discussion for representatives of academia and practitioners from different countries and continents. This allows us to work out the most rational ways not only to counter but also to prevent transnational problems.”

The Annual Cross-Border Research Conference concluded with a field trip to the Tajik-Afghan border during which the participants of the conference had an opportunity to observe the technology infrastructure at the Nizhni Pianj border crossing point of Tajikistan.