The European Union recognises the strategic importance of Central Asia, which links the Asian continent with Europe. In 2019, the EU updated its Central Asia strategy to focus on resilience (covering areas such as human rights, border security and the environment), prosperity (with a strong emphasis on connectivity) and regional cooperation.
Since border security is one of the key elements for stability of the whole region, in 2002 the EU developed a special Programme, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia (BOMCA), aimed at enhancing security, fighting against trafficking and facilitating trade in Central Asia. Since its inception, the Programme has been specifically linked to a number of the EU objectives set forth in its strategic documents.
During its earlier phases, the Programme focused its resources on creating a modern border management infrastructure equipped with the latest equipment. With time, the horizons of BOMCA became broader and the actions of the Programme not only targeted border guards, but also other authorities working in the area of customs, migration, drug control, agriculture, health, etc. The Programme introduced the concept and principles of Integrated Border Management (IBM), with the view to improve cooperation and communication channels among border agencies. The concept is not only built on the best EU practice, but is also aimed at tackling the issue of coordination and consolidation of actions for the Central Asian border management institutions – one of the challenges that BOMCA had to face. Cross-border cooperation of border communities, seeking to improve living conditions of border populations, became an integral part of the BOMCA programme.
BOMCA 11th phase
Launched in February 2026, the ongoing 11th phase of the Border Management Programme in Central Asia is aimed at advancing regional cross-border cooperation, tackling organised crime and improving living conditions for border regions’ population by applying integrated border management approach and gender-balanced and human-rights centred principles. The project, covering all five countries of Central Asia with an overall budget of EUR 12 million, contributes to the implementation of EU strategic interests and policy priorities in the region by building upon and complementing the results achieved under the previous BOMCA phases. The current project phase implemented by the Consortium of partners led by ICMPD is envisaged to further develop border management in Central Asia, strengthen detection capacities of border and law enforcement agencies, enhance gender equality and respect for human rights.
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BOMCA 10th phase
Between April 2021 and September 2025, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia successfully implemented its tenth phase. BOMCA 10 has become a flagship initiative and largest EU-funded programme in the region with an overall budget of EUR 21.65 million.
Delivered by the Consortium of implementing partners led by the State Border Guard of the Republic of Latvia, BOMCA 10 worked with all countries of Central Asia across four themаtic areas: Institutional Development of Border Control Agencies (Component 1), Improvement of Detection Capacities (Component 2), Facilitation of Trade (Component 3), Improvement of Cross-Border Cooperation (Component 4). Specifically, it worked on strengthening skills and procedures together with developing national legislation (capacity building), improving the technical infrastructure (procuring equipment), and, for the first time, the Programme worked with the civil society (providing grants to NGOs).
In total, the Programme delivered 365 thematic capacity-building activities with the engagement of more than 7,000 state officials from beneficiary agencies in Central Asia, provided equipment to five CA countries for more than 4 mln EUR, and developed 289 sets of recommendations for the beneficiary agencies in the framework of four thematic components.
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BOMCA 9th phase
Implemented between June 2015 and September 2020, the ninth phase of BOMCA Programme became the first phase implemented by a consortium of the implementing partners.
Building on the success of the previous phases, the ninth phase of BOMCA continued interventions in the areas of institutional development, management of migration flows and trade facilitation. The ninth phase’s overall budget was 6,606,380 EUR and covered five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan).
The overall objective of BOMCA’s ninth phase was to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of border management in Central Asia by introducing advanced elements of Integrated Border Management (IBM), assisting governments in developing and reforming their migration governance, improving mobility and trade facilitation policies, and strengthening capacities of Border and Migration Agencies, thus contributing to security and economic development at national and regional levels.
During the period of the project, the BOMCA Programme implemented activities within below three specific objectives:
- Sustaining institutional development in the transition toward more effective and efficient methods of border management, replicating best practices of the IBM paradigm.
- Developing legal and procedural instruments, as well as advanced practices to manage regular and irregular migration at borders, in compliance with international norms and standard.
- Introducing measures to increase the efficiency of border checks and procedures facilitating licit trade and transit of goods and countering various forms of smuggling.
In total, the Programme implemented 219 activities in Central Asia with the engagement of more than 3,200 state officials of beneficiary agencies, provided equipment to five CA countries for more than 445,000 EUR, and developed 112 sets of recommendations for the beneficiary agencies in the framework of three thematic components.
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