OSCE Office in Minsk boosts co-operation with Belarus on border management

MINSK, 14 July 2010 - Ambassador Benedikt Haller, the Head of the OSCE Office in Minsk, and Major-General Andrej Gorulko, the First Deputy Chairman of the State Border Committee of Belarus (SBC), signed a memorandum of understanding on implementing a new border security and management initiative in Minsk today.

The agreement covers co-operation with assisting the development of the SBC's psychological support service, risk analysis and management system, further enhancement of outreach and communications through the press service, and development of the SBC's training system.

"The OSCE Office in Minsk is also working with the State Border Committee on other OSCE border-related activities, such as the annual OSCE Border Security and Management National Focal Point Network meetings, training courses at the OSCE Border Management Staff College in Dushanbe and border-related projects in neighbouring OSCE participating States," said Haller. "Our regular co-operation not only contributes to enhancing the capacity of border services in Belarus but to improving overall security within the OSCE region."

One of the projects, on assisting the SBC in developing their psychological support service, already started in May. The project aims to help identify further needs for legislative and organizational reforms and develop a training module for trainers at SBC educational and training institutions and psychological support service officers. The module will focus on providing psychological support to service personnel as well as to victims of trafficking in human beings, asylum seekers, persons without citizenship, illegal migrants and other persons crossing the border as needed.