OSCE Border Management Staff College reaches new milestone with conclusion of 20th Border Management Staff Course

Participants of the 20th Border Management Staff Course discuss the thesis of their group research project, Dushanbe, 16 February 2018. (OSCE/Shamsi Myadyeva).

DUSHANBE, 9 March 2018 - The OSCE Border Management Staff College marked a milestone in its work when it concluded the 20th Border Management Staff Course in Dushanbe on 9 March 2018. It was the first event to be conducted in the new phase of the OSCE BMSC project.

The one-month course promotes the principles and standards of the OSCE Border Security and Management Concept by building the capacity and furthering the professional development of national border security and management agency representatives.

Twenty-five mid to senior-level border, customs and migration officers from Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, Slovak Republic, Tajikistan and Ukraine attended and successfully graduated from the course.

The course consisted of seven modules on different aspects of border security and management, with the addition of a research component. There were also study trips to the Tajik border crossing points on the borders with Uzbekistan and Afghanistan.

“One of our primary goals at the BMSC is to generate further co-operation within countries in the Central Asian region and beyond. In this respect, the Staff Course represents a good opportunity for the participants to develop interpersonal connections at personal and professional levels. Today’s friendships may well lead to successful joint operations in the future,” said BMSC Director Jonathan Holland.

Mario Opacak, a course graduate from Bosnia & Herzegovina, said that “this course was one of the best ones I’ve attended in my 28 years of service. As a border police officer I always wanted to know more about customs and the comprehensive nature of this course leaves me well informed on the subject.”

Topics covered during the course included modern transnational threats in border security, regional and inter-agency co-operation models, development and implementation of border management strategies, human rights in border security and management, and international protection and admission of refugees and asylum seekers. Other subjects covered leadership and management, basic teaching methodologies and basic skills of public speaking.

During the 20th Border Management Staff Course, a roundtable discussion on the Role of International Co-operation in Border Security was organized. The debate served as an introduction to the topic of international co-operation and will be followed by other discussions on how to manage mixed migration flow and how to facilitate trade, which will take place later this year.