Friday, April 27, 2012 -
Guards on both sides of the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border completed training in the Tajik capital Dushanbe Thursday on detecting forged documents.
Four women were included in the group of nine Tajik border passport control officers from Tajikistan and 10 Afghan border police officers.
The almost 900-mile border is mountainous and poorly monitored, making it a favored entry point for drugs traffickers of Afghan opium into Central Asia, from where the narcotics are shipped on to Russia and Europe.
The project was run by the Transnational Threats Department of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
“Forged documents are closely interlinked to security threats such as terrorism, trafficking and organized crime,” said Sandra Rosenthaler, one of the two Austrian trainers who delivered the course, OSCE said in a report.
The nine-day course was expected to train the participants to act as national trainers in their own countries.
“This training course provided us with up-to-date techniques on detecting fake documents. These newly acquired skills coupled with our previous experience will help us ensure better security of our borders,” said Lola Rahmonova, senior passport inspector at Dushanbe International Airport.
“The course also helped us to establish closer contacts with our Afghan counterparts, which is an important precondition for furthering our cooperation across the border,” she added.