DUSHANBE, august 14, 2012, Asia-Plus – Border liaison offices (BLOs) will be set up along the Tajik-Kyrgyz border for the purpose of enhancing fight against drug trafficking.
AKIpress reports that Mr. Steve Monaco, acting UNODC Regional Representative for Central Asia, remarked this at a news conference in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on August 13.
The project reportedly provides for establishing four border liaison offices at four border crossing checkpoints on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
Japan’s Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan noted at the news conference that the Government of Japan had allocated 1.27 million U.S dollars to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for implementation of the project aimed at countering the traffic of Afghan opiates via the Northern Route by enhancing the capacity of key border crossing checkpoints and through the establishment of the border liaison offices.
According to UNODC, the total volume of opiates smuggled from Afghanistan along the so called “Northern Route” encompassing Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, has soared since 1999. Today, 25 % of all heroin smuggled from Afghanistan transits the “Northern Route”, posing a particular threat to Europe and the Russian Federation. Concerted efforts are required to build capacities at the Central Asian Border Crossing Points (BCPs), enhance the level of expertise of officers at these crossings and to establish working, intelligence-sharing and communications mechanisms between agencies employed there. The Border Liaison Office (BLO) concept is seen as being a cornerstone to achieve this objective within the Central Asian countries and extending to increased communication with counterparts in Afghanistan.
UNODC presence in Central Asia began 1993 with the establishment of the UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Today there are Program Offices in all five Central Asian nations.
