State Border Guard Service participated in strengthening Tajikistan authorities’ capacity to investigate cross-border crimes

On 14-16, March the Border Management Programme in Central Asia (BOMCA 10) held a national workshop in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, for representatives of the investigation and criminal intelligence units.

After several workshops held last year in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, two more national workshops are scheduled for May in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan for the representatives of law enforcement authorities of these CA countries.

The workshops focus on the investigation of cross-border crimes such as human trafficking and migrant smuggling. As a result, the workshops strengthened the investigative skills of criminal intelligence officers and cross-border crime investigators. During the workshops, the experts from Lithuania – Prosecutor General's Office and State Border Guard Service – looked into United Nations and European legal instruments for combating human trafficking and migrant smuggling, as well as novel methods of investigating organised cross-border crimes, profiling, and victim identification techniques. Moreover, special attention was focused on case studies and practical exercises.

Following the workshops, a handbook was developed as a tool to assist officers in dealing with cases of human trafficking and migrant smuggling along with standard operational procedures for the investigation of such crimes.