Technical Assistance Mission of Border Management Programme in Central Asia (BOMCA), funded by the European Union yesterday arrived in Dushanbe with the mission to support strengthening of the Local Border Traffic Regimes in Tajikistan, in particular, cooperation between local border communities, local authorities and law enforcement agencies at the borders.

The mission is reportedly conducted by the Latvian State Border Guard officials and Border Representatives of Latvia at the state border with Russian Federation and Belarus, Colonel Janis Kononovs and Lieutenant-Colonel Valdis Jukss.

The main goal of this BOMCA activity is to contribute to modernization of Local Border Traffic Regimes in Central Asia, adapting appropriate EU examples and promoting codification and practical implementation, including cooperation between local border communities, local authorities and law enforcement agencies at the borders of Central Asia.

During the meetings and discussions with the State Border Service officers and Border Representatives of Tajikistan, the expert team will present leading practices of the EU MSs in the area mentioned and together with national partners assess the ways of its adoption in the Republic of Tajikistan.  Experts will present in details a comprehensive mechanism of local border traffic, which can simplify cross border movement.  The involvement of the Border Representatives to support local border traffic regime functionality will be stressed and need of cooperation between Border Representatives will be promoted.

Based on the Mission’s findings, experts will prepare recommendations for further development of local border traffic regime and cooperation between Border Representatives of Tajikistan and neighboring countries.

First BOMCA operations began in Central Asia in 2003, and since then, BOMCA has strengthened partnership of the Central Asia Governments in the field of border management. The European Union allocated a sum of EUR 33.6 million to BOMCA for the period of 2003 – 2014 and almost EUR 5 million for its 9th implementation phase (2015 - 2018).