From the 8th to the 10th of October 2019, and for the first time, trainers from the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) Central Training Center (CTC) delivered a course on document security to personnel from the United Nations’ Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in their headquarters, in Naqoura, South Lebanon.
The Imposters and Documents (ID) course was jointly organised and developed by the CTC and the Netherlands’ Assistance to Lebanese Border Agencies (IBM) Project implemented by ICMPD. Delivered over three days, the foundation-level training was specifically designed for military personnel and aims at providing students with the necessary skills to quickly and reliably spot imposters and check if documents are genuine. Characterised by its highly practical nature, the training combined hands-on exercises, case studies and quizzes, in a way that offers the trainees the chance to test their skills first-hand using actual documents and a range of basic equipment.
14 UNIFIL members with ranks ranging from Warrant Officers to Lieutenant colonels (LTCs) and representing 8 different countries attended the course that they deemed of high value and relevance to their current jobs. The course which was delivered in English by a joint team of experienced trainers and NCOs from the CTC and ICMPD, strictly followed lesson plans assessed by the Royal Netherlands’ Marechaussee, the leading experts in document security, thus insuring all material abides by international standards. High-level representatives from UNIFIL, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Lebanon, and ICMPD attended the course and emphasized during their speeches the importance of such an initiative that highlights the real progress being made in terms of training being delivered by the Lebanese Armed Forces, and depicted the course that has gained the full support of the Lebanese Ministry of Defence, as a landmark moment for international cooperation. ICMPD’s Netherlands’ Project would like to congratulate the CTC on this achievement and hopes that this initiative will provide a foundation for further cooperation between the UNIFIL, ICMPD and LAF.