OSCE holds training courses for Kyrgyz customs officers

An OSCE-supported basic training course for 30 newly recruited Kyrgyz customs offices concluded on 27 December 2013 in Leninskoe village near Bishkek.

A month-long course covered  such areas as identification and detection of narcotics, risk analysis, examination of cargo containers and trailers, analysis of cargo documents, scanner use and image analysis.

The training took place at the Customs Training Centre established in November 2013 with the OSCE support.

The Centre also hosted a management course for Kyrgyz customs instructors and the administration of the training centre from 4 to 6 December, and several coaching classes were held in the mock-up custom port  from  9 to 16 December; they included a session on inspection procedures at the borders, including luggage screening, travel document check and vehicle weight control.

Another three-month long training course for canine specialists of Kyrgyzstan’s Customs Service, State Border Service, State Penitentiary Service and State railway security has been underway since November 4. Participants will learn about modern methods of training dogs to search for prohibited goods and to prevent illegal border crossing.

By the end of 2014, a total of some 360 customs officers from Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan will have been trained in the new centre with the OSCE support.