France to impose stricter border rules following Paris attacks
France is insisting on stricter border rules following the deadly terror attacks in Paris that left at least 129 people dead over the weekend. It is being deduced that the terrorist might have crossed the EU borders with the tide of Syrian refugees entering Europe after a Syrian passport was found near one of the dead bodies.
The Francois Hollande government is urging its EU partners to make moving through Europe’s 26 free-travel area more stringent with systematic and stricter ID checks. The Guardian reports that the three-page demand submitted by the French government, which is to be discussed over an emergency meeting with the EU internal ministers on Friday, insists on a number of security measures. These include retention of information on all passengers travelling by air across EU, strict monitoring of transaction cash as well as all other means of non-electronic payments and an increased level of intelligence-sharing within the continent.
The proposal also includes deployment of rapid response teams at the Greece-Turkey border to prevent terrorists from taking advantage of the Europe refugee crisis. It suggests suspension of the Schengen agreement, which was framed to allow free movement across the EU borders. Hollande is also expected to demand the capacity to seal multiple European borders following terror alerts.
Since the United Kingdom does not come within the European Union, citizens travelling to France and other EU countries will be faced with austere security measures. If the proposals are accepted at the meeting, Britons travelling to France or Brussels on Eurostar will also be affected.
France had imposed strict border rules even before the weekend mayhem occurred because of a major climate change summit to be held in Paris at the end of November. Following the attacks, the country has sealed all its borders.
A number of EU countries have also suspended the Schengen agreement to tackle the huge influx of refugees over the last few months.
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