OSCE trains coast guards in Kazakhstan on detection of forged documents

A five-day OSCE-supported training seminar on the detection of forged travel documents and identification techniques concluded on 28 June 2019 in Aktau, Kazakhstan.

Nineteen coast guard officers of Kazakhstan’s Border Guard Service under the National Security Committee took part in the course. The seminar was led by experts from Austria’s Federal Ministry of the Interior Document Advisors Team and from the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Centre. The event is aimed to build capacity in ensuring international maritime document security and identifying falsified travel and other regulated documents at sea.

Participants representing Caspian Sea-based units of the coast guard were trained in the processes of security paper production, the use of paper and polymer substrates in document security, conventional printing techniques, photo protection, and secondary verification and required maritime documentation.

The curriculum included practical exercises with confiscated falsified documents and genuine travel documents of a multitude of countries, providing the participants with an opportunity to apply their newly learned skills.

The seminar was organized within the Travel Document Security Programme of the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department. It was conducted by the OSCE Programme Office in Nur-Sultan in co-operation with the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Office of the United States Embassy in Kazakhstan and the Coast Guard of the Border Guard Service under the National Security Committee.

The activity was part of the Programme Office’s long-term effort to promote the OSCE border security concept in Kazakhstan.