Afghan and Tajik officials take part in OSCE course on detecting forged travel documents

DUSHANBE, 7 July 2010 - A workshop on detecting forged travel documents and traveller profiling for high-ranking officers and government officials from Afghanistan and Tajikistan started this week at the OSCE Border Management Staff College.

The course, which concludes on Friday, is led by two experts on forged documents from the Austrian Interior Ministry. Twenty high-ranking officers and government officials from Afghanistan's Interior Ministry Border Police and Finance Ministry Customs Department, as well as six representatives from Tajikistan's Border Guard, Customs Services and Drug Control Agency, are taking part.

"Vigilance and experience in controlling travel documents is critical in the fight against organized criminals and terrorists. The OSCE Border Management Staff College is helping OSCE participating States and partner countries like Afghanistan to share expertise in this area and other aspects of border management to help strengthen our common security," said Alain Scolan, the Principal of the OSCE Border Management Staff College.

The main objective of the seminar is to provide participants with an overview of OSCE commitments related to border control of travel documents in line with the Bucharest Plan of Action for Combating Terrorism and the OSCE Border Security and Management Concept. This was complemented with a component on profiling and risk analysis.

The workshop included specialized training modules related to false travel documents, means and tools for personal and document verification, printing techniques and investigative tools traveller profiling and definitions related to border control, risk analysis and offender profiling.