Frontex and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) met online this week to exchange views on the prevention of document fraud in South Eastern Europe.
The meeting gathered 30 participants representing international and regional organizations, as well as national authorities from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
During the meeting, participants reaffirmed the strategic role of document checks both for the borders control and combatting cross-border crime, also in view of the recent surge in forged documents connected with COVID-19.
The experts set up a list of minimum recommended capabilities in document checks at border control. This was a follow-up to the recommendations issued jointly by several organizations during a conference on document checks held in 2019.
Experts from the Frontex Centre of Excellence for Combating Document Fraud stressed that cooperation between international, regional and national stakeholders is crucial to effectively fight this crime.
The OSCE’s POLIS platform, a workspace specifically designed to share information and collaborate on documents in a protected environment, was presented during the meeting. It will provide participating organizations and competent authorities with the possibility to contribute to the list of minimum recommended capabilities in document checks in border control.
