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Schengen: new checkpoints (1)

01 January 1991

Schengen: new checkpoints
artdoc July=1994

The lifting of the internal borders controls under the Schengen
arrangement has led to a French-Dutch police initiative to
maintain checks to search for `illegal' immigrants. `Schengen'
does not allow any systematic controls on the borders, so the
police and Koninklijke Marechaussee have come up with a creative
solution. On several of the major border crossings, a vehicle is
semi-permanently posted near the border with a watchful observer
equipped with binoculars in it. This officer alerts his
colleagues waiting a little further down the road on motorcycles,
who then stop and inspect the car and its passengers.
In a press presentation late April, journalists were shown how
the alert officer could spot approaching vehicles that appeared
to warrant closer inspection by noticing number plates, state of
the automobile and nature of the occupants. Yes, the colour of
the skin did play a role in this process, as a helpful
marechaussee officer explained to inquiring journalists. Though
it is mostly people from Eastern Europe and the former USSR
countries without a visa were stopped and returned.
Cooperation between French and Dutch border control services
has been intensified with the posting of a permanent Dutch `anti-
crime team' in Paris to liaise with French authorities. Also,
French border control officials and Dutch marechaussees now work
routinely on each other's territory on board of international
trains, where they check the status of travelling aliens in an
attempt to intercept those without a visa while they are still
in the country of departure.
Statewatch contributors (Brussels & Amsterdam)

Statewatch, vol 4 no 3, May-June 1994