OSCE Centre co organizes training seminar for Kazakhstan's Border Service

MERKE, 20 July 2009 - A three-day training seminar for Kazakhstani Border Service officials, co-organized by the OSCE Centre in Astana, began today in Merke, a city on Kazakhstan's southern border with Kyrgyzstan.

The OSCE Centre is organizing the seminar together with the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the Border Service of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

"This seminar is part of our work to help Kazakhstan's Border Service strengthen its capacity to combat modern threats and to promote high standards and dignified treatment in border services," said Andrew Offenbacher, Political Officer at the OSCE Centre in Astana. "The seminar will also familiarize Kazakhstani border officials with international best practices in border management."

The participants, 20 front-line Kazakhstani border controllers, will learn about how to handle fundamental challenges facing modern border management in Central Asia, including how to face threats posed by human, narcotics and weapons trafficking, transnational organized crime, terrorism and illegal migration.

Document inspection and contraband seizure during train and vehicle checks, the use of biometric and other information systems and the execution of joint border checking routines are also on the agenda.

This week's seminar is the part of the OSCE Centre in Astana's activities to promote the OSCE border security concept in Kazakhstan. The next in this series of specialized training seminars for Kazakhstani border officials is scheduled to take place later in the year in Pavlodar, close to Kazakhstan's northern border.