OSCE trains Tajik and Afghan border officials on detecting forged documents

DUSHANBE, 26 April 2012 – A training course for Tajik and Afghan border guards aimed at enhancing their skills in detecting forged documents concluded at the OSCE Border Management Staff College (BMSC) in Dushanbe today.

The course was organized by the OSCE Secretariat's Transnational Threats Department / Action against Terrorism Unit (TNT/ATU) in co-operation with the OSCE BMSC and the TNT/Borders Unit and was conducted by two forged document trainers of the Austrian Ministry for the Interior.

Ten Afghan border police officers and nine Tajik border passport control officers, including four women, attended the nine-day training course. They shared and discussed their experiences on the latest forgery methods and ways to detect false and forged documents.

“Forged documents are closely interlinked to security threats such as terrorism, trafficking and organized crime,” said Sandra Rosenthaler, one of the two Austrian trainers who delivered the course. “The course seeks to address these security challenges by providing both theoretical and practical training on document forgery identification.”

Captain Lola Rahmonova, Senior Inspector at the Passport Checkpoint of the Dushanbe International Airport who took part in the course, said: “This training course provided us with up-to-date techniques on detecting fake documents. These newly acquired skills coupled with our previous experience will help us ensure better security of our borders.”

“The course also helped us to establish closer contacts with our Afghan counterparts, which is an important precondition for furthering our co-operation across the border,” she added.

Upon completion of the course, the participants are expected to act as national trainers and further disseminate among their peers the skills and knowledge they received during the training.

The training was part of the second OSCE Afghanistan assistance package and wider OSCE efforts to support Afghanistan.