Sixty personnel of the Gambia Immigration Department (GID) are beneficiaries of a five-day training in forensics in document detection and analysis. GID is undertaking the training in partnership with DCAF under the Swiss Confederation-funded project – Supporting the efficiency and accountability of the Gambia Immigration Department.
Senior experts in forensics documentation from the Estonian police are training the officers in two batches of thirty personnel each. The training targets officials drawn from land, air, and sea border posts and strategic document issuing centres across the country. The training is a comprehensive mid-advanced knowledge and skills for document forensics, secondary checks, and facial forensics. It is a sequel to an earlier basic training conducted by the Experts for GID personnel at the airport.
The training covers eleven topics ranging from interviewing and document control, risk groups, profile indicators, identity and document fraud, facial recognition, security features used in documents, document verification possibilities from public databases, and so on.
Among other things, the training is expected to enable the officers to be able to name what country/organization has issued a document and what type of paper it is, recognize different security features in documents, justify the protection of documents, and differentiate between genuine and fake documents by using public databases.
Corporal Immigration Officer Modou Samba, a beneficiary of the training, said, “The training is excellent and has built my capacity in studying documents and detecting fakes. Henceforth, I will feel more confident doing my job, and I want to thank DCAF for making that possible”.
The training is part of activities in DCAF’s support to achieving an Integrated Border Management (IBM) system to promote efficiency and accountability of the GID and the reform of the Gambia Security Sector.
