Field visit to Tajik-Afghan border held as part of OSCE border college senior staff course

DUSHANBE, 27 November 2010 - Twenty senior customs, border guard and drug control agency officials from Afghanistan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation and Tajikistan made a field visit to Nizhny Panj on the Afghan-Tajik border today as part of the OSCE Border Management Staff College's inaugural Senior Staff Course.

The course at the Dushanbe-based Border Management Staff College began on 15 November and ends 10 December. Several field visits to the borders of Tajikistan are included in the course to give participants the opportunity to observe the conduct of controls over persons, goods, and vehicles including cars, trucks, pedestrians and rail cars.

The Senior Staff course gives the future leaders of national customs, border guard and drug control agencies the opportunity to form professional partnerships and take home the ideas and challenges shared by their colleagues, said Border Management Staff College Principal Alain Scolan.

The participants will study and discuss the strategic and tactical application of border management, control and security and share experiences. The major elements of the course include border management models and strategies; political-military border controls and risks such as terrorism, narcotics trafficking, trafficking in human beings and small arms and light weapons; economic-environmental issues and the security interface with trade facilitation; and the nexus of borders with human rights, freedom of movement, international migration and vulnerable populations.

Contemporary organization and management, along with leadership in integrity, anti-corruption and communications. are also part of the curriculum.

The next Staff Course offering is scheduled for 28 February to 25 March 2011.

For information on the activities of the Border Management Staff College, please contact [email protected].