From July 26-28, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia held a national workshop in Ashgabat that enhanced the cooperation between border guard, migration and customs authorities of Turkmenistan. The workshop also optimised the border and customs controls at checkpoints across the state border. This is the fourth workshop of its kind conducted by the BOMCA Programme in the Central Asian region, following similar activities implemented this year in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The workshop taught officers from central offices of the Frontier, Migration and Customs Services and border crossing points, responsible for the procedures at the crossing points, about various models and forms of coordinating the work, based on good practices from the European Union. The workshop also offered recommendations on applying the most optimal methods of performing checks on people, vehicles, and goods passing through the border. Experts also proposed solutions for adapting technological schemes in organising the road border crossing points and cooperation plans for implementing inspections, which will improve the efficiency of border guard and customs controls.

At the end of the three-day workshop, the participants developed recommendations on introducing the principles of delegation of functions between the Frontier, Migration and the Customs Services. The proposed actions cover legal and practical cooperation, human resource management, and adapting infrastructure, which helps optimise control procedures and speeds up the flow of people, vehicles and goods across the border.

The workshop was carried out by leading planning specialists of control procedures at border and customs agencies of Latvia.