Advanced Training Course to Detect Forged Documents and Imposters in South Eastern Europe

The overall objective of this project, implemented by the Transnational Threats Department’s Border Security and Management Unit (TNTD/BSMU), is to support the capacity of the participating States in South-Eastern Europe (SEE) in their efforts to reduce the number of individuals crossing the borders using fake identity documents. The planned training activities are expected to result in increased practical skills and operational awareness of border control officers to detect forged documents in full compliance with human rights standards.

Background

The OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation are facing an unprecedentedly high number of individuals who travel abroad for the purpose of planning, preparing, participating in terrorist acts, or to provide or receive terrorist training. According to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaida, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Da’esh) and associated groups have attracted over 30,000 foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) from over 100 UN Member States.

Criminals frequently attempt to escape justice by assuming false identities when planning and carrying out criminal acts. Therefore, it is vital that border control officers are highly skilled in profiling, interviewing and detecting forged travel documents. This is of particular relevance since the growing volume of new passports and other identity documents in circulation has resulted in a diversification of forgery trends and more complex forgery methods. Yet many border control officers in the SEE region lack up-to-date information on the latest trends in document fraud and the diversity of new travel document security features, which complicate forgery identification during passport checks at border crossings.

Expected Results

The training activities envisaged in this project aim to improve the front-line law enforcement personnel profiling and interviewing techniques, as well as the skills to detect forged documents in compliance with human rights standards. Each training activity, based on material developed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI), is conducted by its experts.