EU's strengthened Schengen system enters into force

By Serife Cetin

BRUSSELS

New rules to strengthen Schengen Information System (SIS) of the EU came into force on Friday. The system is widely used to share information for security and border management in Europe.

According to a statement by the European Commission, "the upgraded database will help border guards to better monitor who is crossing the EU's borders; support police and law enforcement in capturing dangerous criminals and terrorists; and offer greater protection for missing children and vulnerable adults, in line with the new data protection rules".

The system will be able to alert the children who are at risk of abduction and vulnerable persons who are denied the right to travel for their own security – such as forced marriage, suspicion of human trafficking.

For illegal residents in the Schengen area, the system will be alerted as well and will speed up the process for the return of these persons to the required country.

At the same time, it will be compulsory to enter information about the persons who are banned from entering the Schengen area.

The Schengen Information System (SIS) is a "large-scale, centralised information system that supports checks at the external Schengen borders and improves law enforcement and judicial cooperation in 30 countries throughout Europe".

The SIS current contains around 79 million records and was consulted 5 billion times in 2017.