On Friday February 11, 2011 South African Police Service (SAPS) Officers of the Questioned Documents Unit (QDU), which is a specialized unit involved in the forensic examination of the travel documents, were awarded certificates for the “Advanced Training on Passport Examination Procedures”.

The IOM Migration Management Specialist, Donato Colucci, from the African Capacity Building Centre (ACBC), IOM’s centre of excellence for capacity building located in Moshi (Tanzania)  delivered this training.

IOM’s Passport Examination Procedures Manual was used for acquiring a step-by-step procedure for checking a travel document. The manual addresses travel document examination practices in a logical order, providing practical information on every step of the examination process. Specific detection methods were discussed and practiced in working group sessions. 40 copies of the manual were purchased by the project.

One of the primary objectives of the training was enhancing the knowledge of the QDU specialists in document examination and empowering them on technical terminology, in particular, when called upon to testify or report in court.

The 5-day training Curriculum focused on the security paper used for travel documents, banknotes and certificates, printing techniques and security printing used for passports, the security features used for enhancing the security of the travel documents, face recognition procedures and on the most used techniques of falsifications used by the forgers

This training, which was entirely funded by the SAPS, confirmed the excellent cooperation between IOM and SAPS in South Africa and is a significant milestone for further capacity building initiatives.

For more information, contact Puseletso Mompei, e-mail: pmompei@iom.intThis or Tel: +27 12 342 2789 Cell: +27 7168 999 66