OSCE strengthens training capacity of Moldovan and Ukrainian border guards to identify forged documents and imposters

From 27 to 31 January, the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department held a training-of-trainers course for the Moldova Border Police and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS) in Chișinău, Moldova. The event focused on developing the instructional skills of the seven participating border officers so that they may conduct future training within their national services on identifying forged documents and imposters at border crossing points. This is the first joint training-of-trainers course on this topic for the neighbouring participating States.

Moldova shares a 1,222 km border with Ukraine and has seen over 1.2 million border crossings since February 2022, the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. This significant rise in crossings has led to an increased workload for border officers in both Moldova and Ukraine, who have also noticed a greater variety of travel documents being presented. Given this reality, fostering joint border control operations has become a central focus to enhance connectivity and streamline cross-border travel.

During the interactive training session, which was conducted by two document experts from Greece and two from the Main Forensic Centre of the SBGS, participants engaged in comprehensive discussions on evidence-based adult learning techniques and tips to conduct concise, resource-efficient training sessions at the beginning of shifts. Additionally, good practices for developing tailored training programmes were reviewed. Equipped with enhanced knowledge, the participants will return to their respective services able to train their colleagues on key security features in travel documents.

This training course marked the third step in the training cycle, in which every participant had previously completed basic and advanced courses in September 2024. The next and final step will be a study visit in 2026 to disseminate good practices and further enhance the trainers’ knowledge of new technologies in detecting forged documents and imposters at border crossing points.

The training was part of an ongoing project supporting the OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation in reducing the illegal crossing of borders by using a fake or stolen identity. This project is generously funded by the United States of America.