OSCE Border Management Staff College off to a successful start

Starting up a new institution, like launching a ship, means making a multitude of adjustments while already afloat. The OSCE Border Management College was officially christened last May and plunged into an intensive phase of equipping premises, recruiting administrative staff, promoting the College at conferences and events and developing its curriculum.

The OSCE Border Management Staff College's main purpose is to act as a central institution where officials from all border-related agencies throughout the OSCE area can enhance their knowledge and exchange information on keeping borders open and secure. Good border management is essential to preventing terrorism and combating transnational crimes such as the trafficking of drugs, weapons, human beings and contraband. Last October, amidst intense setup activities and just weeks after Director Wolfgang Maierhofer and Senior Lecturer Sergey Batyuk arrived in Dushanbe, the College began fulfilling its core function, welcoming 13 senior border officials to a seminar on leadership and management.

A workshop on national border management strategies followed later that month, and a third course, a seminar on travel documents security, was held in November 2009.

Learning from experience

Each of these training courses was an intensive, five-day event. Once the College becomes fully operational, it will be offering regular four to five-week staff courses. But these short seminars and workshops will equally remain an important part of its programme.

In planning topics and activities, the College is seeking to be as responsive as possible to participants' needs. The seminars have increasingly emphasized learning from real-life examples. The workshop on national border strategies included case studies of border management strategies in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Albania. The vivid presentation of the border situation in Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries by General Kasym Gafarov, First Deputy Head of the State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan, met with approbation at both of the October events.

Another highlight of the second course was a field trip to the border crossing between Tajikistan and Afghanistan at Nizhny Pyanj. Participants visited the newly built bridge across the river Pyanj, the border crossing point, the frontier post and the  customs office. There was a question and answer session with Tajik colleagues.

Seminar on travel documents security

The third course, held from 23 to 26 November 2009, was particularly hands-on, dealing with the detection of forged documents and traveller profiling. This is an area where the OSCE has considerable experience, on the basis of participating States' commitments documented above all in the Bucharest Plan of Action for Combating Terrorism and the OSCE Border Security and Management Concept. Twenty officers and officials from 11 OSCE participating States - Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Russian Federation, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine - took part.

Experts Juergen Duftschmied and Gerold Glechner of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior provided instruction in the practical aspects of detecting false travel documents, using portable forged document detection kits donated by the OSCE Secretariat. The United Kingdom expert Malcolm Cuthbertson explained International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) norms.

Participants were enthusiastic about the pertinence of the subject matter. "It was good to emphasize the significance of counterfeiting; also to provide basic knowledge about paper production, safety features, printing techniques, ICAO recommendations and standards and especially profiling," said one participant. "This will have huge practical significance for the professional activities of border services workers," said another.

Challenges ahead

The Border Management Staff College still has many sails to unfurl, of course. One of its purposes - and the reason for its location in Dushanbe - is to provide training opportunities for officers from border-related agencies in Afghanistan, which is an OSCE Partner for Co-operation. But in spite of extensive efforts, the College staff have so far been prevented by unforeseen circumstances from welcoming Afghan colleagues at the courses. Also still earmarked for the future are the development of a research and development centre and a library, as well as an outreach programme for the Central Asian region.

Meanwhile, organizational and promotional activities are proceeding briskly. Steps are underway to set up an Academic Advisory Board. There will be a briefing about the College for ministries, embassies, border-related agencies and international organizations in Dushanbe at the beginning of March, and an Affiliates Meeting is planned for 12 February in Vienna.

Five or six seminars and workshops along the lines of the ones already held will take place in 2010. Also envisaged for this year are seminars and workshops especially designed for Afghan officers. In addition, the College is planning activities targeting the host country and the Central Asian region. It intends to release its first newsletter soon, and is setting up a database for experts and lecturers. The first regular four to five-week staff course is foreseen for September.