Immigration and Border Management

IOM is increasingly called upon by Member States to assist in addressing border management challenges, including technical support in specific areas of training. Training on border management primarily refers to the technical support extended to the immigration and border officials who have a direct role in movement processing and the management and operations of border crossing points. Border management training is a core component of IOM’s capacity-building work and is often integral to projects of the Immigration and Border Management (IBM) Unit.  

IOM’s Objective in Immigration and Border Management is to reinforce the skills and competencies of border and immigration officials to support professional, ethical and efficient border management.  

IOM supports the Department of Immigration under the Ministry of Public Security, and its regional and local counterparts to tackle irregular migration, human smuggling, and trafficking by enhancing the capacity of border officials to detect and prevent the smuggling of migrants and human trafficking, as well as vulnerable migrants at risk. 

Capacity Building through Improved Induction and Refresher Training for Immigration Officials (Phase 1, 2 and 3)

Under this project, IOM was able to achieve the performance targets set as part of the contract, including: the development of three training manuals for induction of immigration officials; organized two induction courses utilizing the curriculums developed for potential master trainers; recruited and selected the master trainers who went on to form the dedicated Master Trainers’ Unit within DoI; provided training of trainers (ToT) training for the master trainers on training methodologies; supported and coached the master trainers to provide cascaded rollout trainings in northern, central and southern provinces of Lao People’s Democratic Republic.; jointly developed with DoI a manual on the core functions, systems, and responsibilities of immigration officials on the job; monitoring on the effectiveness and impact of the first cascaded rollout training with master trainers and training participants; provided capacity building on needs-based training to the master trainers and organized a final project closing workshop with project stakeholders and the Government of Canada.

Key Donor

• The Government of Canada

Enhancing Border Management Capacity in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic through Technology Improvement

Since 2001, IOM has been supporting the Government of Lao People’s Democratic Republic (GoL) and other relevant stakeholders to combat trafficking in persons (TIP) and assist vulnerable migrants through its unique expertise in policy development, capacity building, and raising awareness of migration issues.  

The project will address both hard and soft infrastructure by upgrading border management technology so that the Department of Immigration of Lao People’s Democratic Republic has improved technological solutions and capacity to effectively manage migration flows in line with international standards and universal values. Ultimately, Lao People’s Democratic Republic will be able to facilitate safe, orderly, and regular border crossing, while preventing migrant smuggling and human trafficking from and into the country in order to realize a peaceful and secure society. 

Under the overall objective of contributing to the Government of Lao People’s Democratic Republic's efforts in facilitating safe, orderly, and regular migration through the implementation of effective and efficient and effective border and migration management. 

For more information on the Advancing the Global Health Security Agenda through Strengthening Capacities for Rapid Response to Humanitarian and Public Health, please refer to the [link to the program report]. 

Key donors: 

• The Government of Japan 

For more information on ACCBP and IOM’s approach on IBM, please refer to the IBM Factsheet.