OSCE, UNDP complete border management awareness training

Participants from Afghanistan discuss human rights in border security and management at the OSCE Border Management Staff College in Dushanbe, 5 July 2017 (OSCE BMSC/Bunafsha Azimova)

DUSHANBE, 13 July 2017 – Twenty-two border and customs officers from Afghanistan and Tajikistan graduated from the Afghan Border Police Border Management Awareness Course today at the OSCE Border Management Staff College (BMSC) in Dushanbe.

This ten-day training course focused on improving participants’ knowledge of the principles and procedures of border security operations, the concept of mainstreaming human rights and the role of gender equality in border management. It was conducted by the BMSC in partnership with the EU-funded, UNDP-implemented Border Management Northern Afghanistan (BOMNAF) project.

“The completion of this training brings the number of Afghan Border Police Border Management Awareness Courses conducted by the BMSC to 19. The ongoing process of refining the curriculum allows us to keep the course at the top level,” said Dita Nowicka, the BMSC Director. She further noted the success of the previous courses that resulted in a better representation of women in the last course with 18% of participants being female.

Topics covered during the course included international drug trafficking and counternarcotic co-operation between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, transnational anti-crime and anti-drug activities in Central Asia, human rights and gender in border security and management, asylum seekers and refugees at the border as well as leadership and management.

“The BMA courses provide an excellent opportunity for participants to learn about new developments in their profession and for us to hear from them what they think. For the students in this particular course, we have chosen subjects requested by previous participants. We will in turn use their feedback to improve future courses, making them as relevant as possible to participants’ needs,” said Michael Holman, BOMNAF’s International Training Specialist.

“It is important to bring different agencies and nationalities around the table and train together, as it is always good to see things from a different perspective. Skills that you don’t use on a day-to-day basis are easy to forget once you climb up the ladder, but being a border and customs officer on the Afghan border you get to wear a lot of different hats. Therefore it is vital to know every single one of the aspects of border management, and that is what this course provides,” said Jonathan Holland, the course instructor.