AKIPRESS.COM - Afghan and Tajik border officers completed two-week Border Police Border Management Awareness Course at the OSCE Border Management Staff College in Dushanbe on November 14.

The course was co-organized with the EU-funded, UNDP-implemented Border Management Northern Afghanistan (BOMNAF) project. Twenty-four Afghan and two Tajik border and customs professionals enhanced their knowledge about concepts such as risk management, human rights and information sharing and gained important know-how on practical topics such as vehicle search, first aid and leadership and management.

“Even though it will not be possible to completely eliminate risks, we should give Afghan decision-makers the capacities to take informed decisions. As such, risk analysis is one helpful tool to be used on the way to closing the gap between risk and capabilities,” said the Director of the OSCE Border Management Staff College Henryk Raczkowski.

William Lawrence, EU-BOMNAF Project Manager, stated that the successful partnership between the European Union, UNDP and OSCE Border Management Staff College has matured beyond expectations into an important element in regional cooperation and cross-border liaison. “Afghan and Tajik border police officers attending the same training courses and developing similar skills and sharing opinions and ideas together have already made a difference to collaboration on the international border between the two countries and the development of capacity on Afghanistan’s northern border”, said Lawrence.

Colonel Jarnail Mamozai, Deputy Commander of the Shir Khan Bandar Border Police, North of Afghanistan, said: “The training sessions were interesting and useful, in particular those that focused on border crossing points, trafficking in human beings, refugees and migration-related issues. The best students of the current training could go through the train-the-trainer course, which would further build the capacities in Afghanistan.”