Shafaqna English- From November 1 controls at France’s borders with Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy officially begin for six months, in its most widespread resumption of checks since the Schengen zone was created three decades ago. The government says the move is due to security threats and illegal migration.
Earlier this month, the French government notified the European Commission and six neighbouring states – Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain – that it would reintroduce border checks on land, air and sea routes from November 1 until at least April 2025.
It cited “serious threats to public policy, public order, and internal security posed by high-level terrorist activities, the growing presence of criminal networks facilitating irregular migration and smuggling, and migration flows that risk infiltration by radicalised individuals, as well as the irregular crossings on the Channel and North Sea borders, along with rising violence among migrants”.
The decision came as a surprise to many who have grown accustomed to free movement within the European Union’s so-called Schengen Zone.
Source: Info Migrants