From 11 to 12 May, the EU-funded Border Management Programme in Central Asia (BOMCA 10) organised a study visit to Uzbekistan on external labour migration management, specifically for the state agencies of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan responsible for migration management.

The participants have visited the mono-centres in Tashkent and Samarkand, where the pre-departure training for labour migrants is organised. They have learnt the methodology of the pre-departure training, that could be further used to support pre-departure training of potential labour migrants living in the border regions. The experience and knowledge gathered during the study visit will support the participants from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to further ameliorate their practices in offering support to the labour migrants from the border regions of their respective countries.   

The study visit also provided an opportunity for the migration agencies’ representatives from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to exchange on a broader spectrum of migration management topics, in addition to learning in detail from the experience of pre-departure training in Uzbekistan. 

This activity was organised in the framework of the Programme’s Component 4, “Improvement of Cross-Border Cooperation”, and is aimed at improving living conditions in border areas through local economic development, with a focus on human rights, gender equality and vulnerable groups.