A five-day training course on the identification of forged documents and verification of persons’ identities for members of the Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) concluded on 21 February 2020 in Sarajevo. The event was organized jointly by the Border Security and Management Unit of the OSCE Transnational Threats Department and the OSCE Mission to BiH.
“Integrated border management is an absolute necessity for a country that finds itself at the forefront of cross-border criminal activity such as irregular migration, trafficking of human beings, or the movement of individuals planning to commit or support acts of terrorism,” said Susan Penksa, Head of the Security Co-operation Department at the OSCE Mission to BiH. “Even with improved document security features, stricter issuance controls, and strengthened security checks at borders, the forging of personal identity documents is on the rise. Criminals have diversified their counterfeiting techniques and methods as they look for ways to assume fake identities without detection.”
One of the trainers, Gerald Schuh, Document Advisor at the Federal Ministry of the Interior of Austria, emphasized that the aim of the training course is to decrease the number of criminals crossing borders under fake identities, impacting positively on wider efforts to combat transnational threats in compliance with international standards. “The training has a strong interactive component, as it includes practical exercises on recognizing an imposter, work on original and forged documents, and the use of forensic equipment to identify document forgeries. These five days are a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge and create a network with the participants and among them.”
The training course was developed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Interior and covers a wide range of topics related to counterfeit travel documents; including security features, printing techniques and latest trends in counterfeiting.
