From August 2 to 4, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia held a workshop in Bishkek for representatives of the border guard and law enforcement agencies of Kyrgyzstan on cooperation with INTERPOL. The participants familiarized themselves with legal, procedural and technical solutions for cooperation with and running of activities through INTERPOL.
From 25-28 July of this year, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia (BOMCA), in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Agency (UNHCHR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) held a national workshop on international standards in identification, detention and return of irregular migrants in Nur-Sultan. Representatives of the Committee for Migration Service, the Police Department of Nur-Sultan city and the Administrative Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as the Border Service and 2nd Department, National Security Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan took part in the event. This is the fifth workshop of its kind conducted by the BOMCA Programme in the Central Asian region, which concludes a series of similar workshops implemented in each country of the region.
On July 25, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia started a training of trainers (ToT) course for dog handling instructors specialising in drug searches in Latvia. H.E. Mr. Timur Primbetov, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Republic of Latvia, and Mr. Kristaps Eklons, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, took part at the opening of the event. The training course is a three-month event gathering five trainers, one from each country of Central Asia, and it aims to improve theoretical and practical knowledge during in-training of canine teams and service dogs used for daily border guarding tasks, including the detection of drugs.
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.
From July 19 to 21, 2022, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia organised a technical assistance mission, in the form of a meeting on analysis of the current customs legislation in the transit area, gathering experts from the EU Member States and Tajik national experts on the development of a national transit declaration/control system. The mission assisted the Tajikistan Customs Administration with reviewing existing national transit systems, in applying the Transit Internationaux Routier (TIR) Convention, identifying gaps in legislation and relevant administrative instructions on transit regimes, and developing recommendations for further improvement. This mission continues a series of national activities in the region – similar workshops were implemented in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in 2021 and Kyrgyzstan in March 2022.
From July 19 to 21 the Border Management Programme in Central Asia, in partnership with the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre for Combating the Illicit Trafficking of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and their Precursors (CARICC), held its second regional workshop for representatives of border guard services and law enforcement institutions of all five countries in Central Asia. The participants learned about modern methods and tools of crime analysis, information exchange and other forms of cooperation during investigation of cross-border organized crimes.
From 13 to 20 July 2022, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia held national workshops in Dushanbe and Bishkek on risk analysis for representatives of the border guard, customs and law enforcement agencies engaged in the border management of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The workshops introduced participants to the basic principles, applicable practices and regulations and joint border security risk analysis procedures based on the European experience and provided an overview of the national system, legal framework and approved activities necessary to develop the risk analysis systems.
From 13 to 15 July 2022, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia held a workshop in Tashkent on strategic risk analysis for representatives of the border guard, customs and law enforcement agencies engaged in border management in Uzbekistan. The workshop aimed to familiarise participants with the principles and methodology of the Common Integrated Risk Analysis Model used in the European Union (EU) and to provide information on a systematic approach to data collection and analysis.
From July 7-8, 2022 the Border Management Programme in Central Asia held a training on diaspora policies and reintegration for Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Migration and the Secretariat of the Migration Council, under the Speaker of the Parliament of the Kyrgyz Republic. The training equipped the participants with the knowledge on the successful practices in the aforementioned areas, enabling them to apply the received information in further ameliorating their diaspora policies and the reintegration of returnees for the benefit of the local border regions’ development.
