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Border Control Amendments In Wake Of Paris Attacks

Border Control Amendments In Wake Of Paris Attacks Homeland Security Today
All EU external border control checkpoints are to be connected to INTERPOL’s global databases for automatic screening of travel documents by March 2016.

The outcome was one of several measures to strengthen border controls agreed to at an extraordinary meeting of EU justice and Home affairs ministers in Brussels following the Paris terror attacks.

Conclusions adopted at the end of the meeting also call for all EU states to carry out systematic registration, including fingerprinting, of third country nationals illegally entering the Schengen area, and to perform systematic security checks with INTERPOL.

Integrating access to INTERPOL’s databases by frontline police and critical locations such as national counterterrorism units, identification centers and illegal border crossing chokepoints, would enable EU states to strengthen their defenses.

More than 50 countries have provided information to INTERPOL’s Foreign Terrorist Fighter Database, which currently contains details of some 6,000 individuals, with more than 50 per cent of the data coming from non-EU sources.

“European security depends on real-time access to foreign information,” said INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock.

“Every additional record made available across borders builds a new opportunity for Europe, but every piece of information left unexploited creates a new risk,” Stock added, pointing to the realistic and available police capabilities provided by INTERPOL for information-sharing across its network of 190 member countries.

INTERPOL systems have already been integrated into the Passenger Name Records Databases of several member countries, enabling them to conduct instant checks on travelers.

The EU meeting also called for the European Commission to undertake efforts to achieve interoperability in relation to security checks, in particular the Schengen Information System II and INTERPOL’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) and Illicit Arms Records and tracing Management System IiARMS) databases.

INTERPOL’s SLTD database currently includes details of nearly 54 million documents from 170 countries, including information on 250,000 passports reported lost or stolen – among them blank documents – by Syria and Iraq.

The IARMS databases enable the exchange and investigative cooperation between law enforcement agencies in relation to the international movement of illicit firearms, as well as licit firearms linked to criminal activity.

Highlighting the recent terror attacks in Mali, Nigeria, Turkey and Lebanon, the head of INTERPOL said the need for cooperation had never been stronger.

“The more information we have, the more information we can make available to our member countries around the world to enhance security at the national, regional and global levels,” Stock concluded.

The EU meeting comes the same week as law enforcement and counter-terrorism officials from around the world gathered an INTERPOL meeting to exchange information linked to foreign terrorist fighters traveling to and from the Syrian and Iraq conflict zones.

Some 111 participants from nearly 40 countries exchanged best practice on how to address and neutralize the threat posed by ISIS and other terrorist groups using expertise gained in the wider conflict zone as a platform to train and plan attacks against Western and other targets.

Border Control Amendments In Wake Of Paris Attacks Homeland Security Today
Homeland Security Today
The Government Technology & Services Coalition's Homeland Security Today (HSToday) is the premier news and information resource for the homeland security community, dedicated to elevating the discussions and insights that can support a safe and secure nation. A non-profit magazine and media platform, HSToday provides readers with the whole story, placing facts and comments in context to inform debate and drive realistic solutions to some of the nation’s most vexing security challenges.
Homeland Security Today
Homeland Security Todayhttp://www.hstoday.us
The Government Technology & Services Coalition's Homeland Security Today (HSToday) is the premier news and information resource for the homeland security community, dedicated to elevating the discussions and insights that can support a safe and secure nation. A non-profit magazine and media platform, HSToday provides readers with the whole story, placing facts and comments in context to inform debate and drive realistic solutions to some of the nation’s most vexing security challenges.

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