The federal government is preparing for the introduction of a European entry and exit system for migrants. This is an electronic registration and control system at the borders of the Schengen countries for migrants who want to stay in the European Union for a maximum of 90 days. This is reported by State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Sammy Mahdi (CD&V), who has great expectations of the new system.
Mahdi’s draft law, which was approved by the Council of Ministers on Friday, is preparing our country for its introduction. Specifically, migrants will be registered and will have to provide their biometric data, in particular fingerprints and a facial scan. This information is kept in a new European database that is accessible to all Member States.
With this system, the Immigration Office also knows when the length of stay has ended and whether the migrant has returned to his country of origin.
“Our country will therefore immediately know from all persons on the territory who is staying longer than the permitted duration, while until now this had to be done through a check of the residence by the police or through absurd and time-consuming actions such as ringing the doorbell of neighbors. to ask whether they know whether migrants are still residing at a certain address,” said State Secretary Mahdi.
Digital address notification
Every year, more than 200,000 people travel to our country with a short-stay visa. In reality, the number of people who travel to our country for a short period of time is much higher, because many third-country nationals can travel to the EU without a visa, Mahdi knows.
Anyone who comes to Belgium without a visa is now not registered. Moreover, only a small group of short-term residents report their stay to the municipality.
With the introduction of the new system, the State Secretary has opted to introduce a digital address report.
70,000 fewer paper certificates per year
Anyone who enters the EU is registered once and no longer has to visit the municipality for registration in the event of a short stay. Only the address of residence still has to be reported, and that will be possible digitally.
The same scheme will also apply to EU citizens who must request a paper proof of registration from the municipality today. This will ensure that municipalities have approximately 70,000 fewer paper certificates to issue each year.
Mahdi expects the new digital registration and control system to come into effect at European level this autumn.
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