OSCE enhances identification and profiling skills for border guards in Kazakhstan

ASTANA, 9 March 2016 – An OSCE-supported national seminar on identification and profiling techniques for officers of Kazakhstan’s Border Service and Migration Police began today in Astana.

The three-day event is co-organized by the OSCE Programme Office in Astana and the EU-funded Border Management in Central Asia (BOMCA) Programme. Some 20 officers representing the Border Service of the National Security Committee will learn international best practices on identification and profiling techniques with a special focus on current trends in profiling technology and its application. The participants will go through an intensive training, which will include both theoretical and practical elements.

During the event, international experts from Georgia and Latvia will provide an overview of the international experience in profiling, including the scope of document verification, psychological profiling, identifying the elements of risk profiles and understanding the consistency between the type of vehicle, belongings and the purpose of the trip.

In his welcoming remarks, Deputy Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Astana, Mirco Guenther, noted: “Incorporating modern technology into border management is crucial to enhancing any country’s capabilities, but it must be complemented by finely-tuned instincts and experience of border officials who can better identify when this approach must be used. It is not practical to scan every car passing through a border and it is up to border officials to assess a situation and know when to incorporate this technology into their work to identify who may have nefarious intent, and hence, better protect a country’s borders.”

"Migration and border management are some of the areas where Latvia has acquired considerable experience, allowing our country to offer specialization in this area,” said Juris Pogrebnaks, Ambassador of Latvia to Kazakhstan. “In that same vein, Latvia's foreign policy priorities in Central Asia are related to the strengthening of security and stability, the development of transportation and the transit sector, education and protection of the environment."

The seminar is a first in a series of the OSCE Programme Office events for 2016 related to enhancing the host country’s border security and management, which aims to promote open safe borders and ensure the free and secure cross-border movement of persons and goods, as well as enhance the security of travel documents, counter terrorism, fight transnational organized crime, illegal migration, and the trafficking of drugs, weapons and human beings.