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CSTO coordinating council of competent agencies to discuss illegal migration

The Coordinating Council session will be attended by the directors of the competent agencies of CSTO countries from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan

DUSHANBE, October 1. /TASS/. Modern methods for counteraction to illegal migration will be discussed in Dushanbe on Wednesday by participants in a session of the Coordinating council of competent agencies of the member-countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization /CSTO/. Nikolai Bordyuzha, Secretary-General of the CSTO, will take part in discussions and address those present, his press secretary Vladimir Zainetdinov announced on Tuesday.

"Participants in the session will discuss contemporary approaches to arrangements for work to counteract illegal migration, legislative and legal regulatory framework, refinement of law application practice, and a rise in the effectiveness of preventive measures," Zainetdinov said.

"Discussions will also deal with the immigration control practice and ensurance of interaction between migration services and border control agencies, the monitoring of migration processes with a view to forecasting their development, and exposure of new channels for illegal migration from third countries," he pointed out.

"Much attention is to be devoted to matters connected with a possible mass influx of refugees from Afghanistan, and counteraction measures on the part of CSTO countries," the press secretary pointed out. He added that this concern of CSTO countries was prompted by the forthcoming withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force in 2014.

Militia Lieutenant General Ramazan Rakhimzoda, Tajikistan's Minister of the Interior, referred to the theme of the Coordinating Council's session as "utterly important". "Tajikistan cannot help but worry about the situation which will take shape in Afghanistan following a probable withdrawal of NATO forces from that country," Rakhimzoda told TASS in an interview.

"One cannot help but take it into acount that our republic, among CIS countries, has the longest border with Afghanistan, over 1,300 km long and running across mountainous difficult-of-access terrain which is not always thoroughly guarded for purely objective reasons," the battlefield general added. He said, a "close interaction" among the security organizations of CSTO counties is essential in such a situation in order to have "accurate and advance information" on a possible breakthrough by uncontrolled flows of refugees from Afghanistan".

"Already now we have available data on a concentration of individual groups o f militants from among sabotage and terrorist movements in dangerous proximity to the border with Tajikistan, the groups which can, if an opportunity presents itself, blend into a flow of illegal migrants," Rakhimzoda explained.

The Coordinating Council session will be attended by the directors of the competent agencies of CSTO countries from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan, as well as by representatives of the Coordinating service of the CIS Council of commmanders of border troops. A Resolution is to be adopted as as result of discussions.