IOM Trains Frontline Guinean Immigration Officers

GENEVA, Switzerland, March 26, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- A group of 43 frontline immigration officers in the Republic of Guinea have received a two-week crash course in border management information technology from IOM and the Ministry of Security as part of a Canadian-funded project to combat irregular migration and human smuggling.

The officers, based at Guinea's Kourémalé border with Mali and Pamelap border with Sierra Leone, received the training ahead of the Guinean migration department (DCPAF)'s upcoming adoption of IOM's Personal Information and Registration (PIRS) migration management software.

PIRS, which is already operational in 17 African states, allows immigration departments to affordably collect, process and store travelers' information, including bio-data, at entry and exit border points, for identification, authentication, data collection and analysis.

The system, which will help the Guinean government to monitor border movements, will also help it to develop border management policies based on reliable data collected at borders and held in a central database.