On 4 October, Vienna hosted the 13th Central Asia Border Security Initiative Conference (CABSI), gathering over 100 international participants to discuss issues relating to transnational organised crime, migration challenges and responses, and trade facilitation issues.
The conference was hosted by the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior and organised in cooperation with the European Commission, the BOMCA Programme and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). It gathered officials from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, EU Member States and other countries playing an important role in the region, as well as key international actors in the field of migration.
The conference work was structured into three thematic panels, focusing on the issues of foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs), migration challenges and trade facilitation, where participants reported on the results achieved during the past years, as well as gaps and challenges to be overcome.
During the discussions, the participants looked into good practices in the abovementioned areas, which could also be applicable in Central Asia to further promote border management and security. Important threats and challenges were discussed, such as FTFs, return migration, human rights of migrants, connectivity and regional security. Related tools and mechanisms, strategies and approaches to enable state agencies to deal with cross-border trafficking activities, FTF identification and profiling, migration governance, and trade facilitation were all given consideration.
The Central Asia Border Security Initiative was launched in 2002 on the initiative of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior to provide a forum for coordination and discussion of the programme activities and strategic objectives of the EU-funded programmes. Since then, the CABSI’s role has gone far beyond the framework of an information exchange platform; proving itself to be a mechanism for stakeholder dialogue and coordination of international efforts on border management in Central Asia.