Border Guards from Ukraine and Belarus Explore Green Border Management Techniques in Romania

On September 28 – October 2, 2015 a group of Belarusian and Ukrainian border guard officers representing border detachments patrolling the common Belarus-Ukraine border as well as central administrations of their services visited Romania to study the country’s best techniques in integrated border management (IBM), green border surveillance, operation of border crossing points, cooperation with the neighboring countries, as well as methods used to address the acuteproblem of irregular migration.

In course of the visit the border guards of the two states visited the Headquarters of the Border Police in Bucharest, as well as the Border Police Station Calafat at the border with Bulgaria, the border checkpoint Portile de Fier at the river border with Serbia (external EU border), as well as the land border with Serbia.

During these site visits the delegates familiarized with the general functions, structure and policies of the Romanian General Inspectorate for Border Police, currently applied border control procedures, Romania’s best practices in using body scanners for drugs detection, command and control methods, technical means for border surveillance, passport control at checkpoints, use of spectral videocomparators, Eurodac fingerprint system etc.

Lessons learned during the visit will be shared with other officers of the State Border Committee of Belarus and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and will thus enrich the capacity of both border agencies in the modern IBM techniques.

The visit has been co-funded by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Background:
The regional project titled “Strengthening surveillance and bilateral coordination capacity along the common border between Belarus and Ukraine (SURCAP Phase II)”is being implemented in 2014-2016. The project is funded by the European Union and implemented by IOM with the support of ICMPD. The project’s budget for two countries constitutes EUR 5,350,000, covering the training and equipment procurement components.
For more detailed information, please contact the responsible IOM officer in Minsk:
Pavel Kholod, National ProgrammesOfficer, IOM Minsk,tel: +375 17 288 27 42