France will maintain the reestablishment of controls at its borders this Friday, November 1, 2024. “ The French expect us to have an effective immigration control policy. The government has just notified the European Commission of the extension of internal border controls, established since 2015the Prime Minister wrote on X on October 18. This system has already been tested since 2015 at the Italian border. “ It is a proven model. We are going to generalize it across all of France’s land borders. », Added Michel Barnier.
Paris has therefore notified the European Commission of its intention to maintain these controls from November 1, 2024 to April 30, 2025. Under the principle of free movement in the Schengen area, a Member State can only reintroduce controls at its internal borders temporarily. and in the event of a serious threat to public order or internal security. However, in practice, these controls often remain in place longer than authorized. France had already carried out a control operation at the Belgian border at the beginning of October.
« Every year since 2015, tens of thousands of exiled people have been controlled “to the facies” at the French internal borders then pushed back in disregard of their rightsdenounced the National Association for Border Assistance for Foreigners (Anafé) in a press release. Under the pretext of security, France has used, for years, the reestablishment of internal border controls to carry out migration control, in violation of the Schengen border code. »
Paris cites “serious security threats”
To be on point, France justifies the extension and broadening of this measure by invoking the “ serious threats to public order and internal security posed by high-level terrorist activities, the growing presence of criminal networks facilitating illegal immigration and trafficking, and migratory flows which risk being infiltrated by radicalized individuals ».
According to Belgian media, these checkpoints, 20 of which will be set up on an ad hoc basis, will notably concern the towns of Mouscron, Tournai and Menin on the Belgian side. “ It is essential to monitor certain collateral effects, particularly with regard to circulation. Queues could rise near checkpoints, thus increasing the risk of accidents near borders. », Warns the Mouscron police.
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