DUSHANBE, October 22, 2015, Asia-Plus -- The assessment mission of BOMCA 9 Program has visited Dushanbe.

According to the Delegation of the European Union to Tajikistan, the aim of the assessment mission was to present BOMCA Program and its components to the main target groups, to evaluate the current situation together with beneficiaries of the Republic of Tajikistan and to define main needs and most important areas to be targeted by the Program.

A series of meetings have been held with representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Main Border Guard Directorate at the State Committee for National Security, Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan and Migration Service at the Ministry of Labor, Migration and Employment.

Also, meetings have been conducted with international organizations involved in border management area (OSCE, IOM and UNHCR).

The mission was led by Colonel Zaguzovs, Head of Administration Department of State Border Guard of the Republic of Latvia and consisted of representatives of the Latvian State Border Guards, International Center on Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Riga Technical University, and Customs Department under the Ministry of Finance of Lithuania.

A new, 9th phase of BOMCA Program was launched with financial support of the European Union in June 2015.  Its implementation is planned for 36 months. Current phase of the Program with total budget of almost 5 million Euros is implemented by the Consortium of partners lead by the State Border Guard of the Republic of Latvia.

It is expected that the overall objective of this phase of the Programme, which is to increase effectiveness and efficiency of border management in Central Asia, will be reached by introducing advanced elements of the Integrated Border Management (IBM), assisting governments in developing and reforming their migration governance, mobility and trade facilitation policies and strengthening capacities of Border and Migration Agencies.