Minister Quintin opposes more flexible passport controls on Zaventem and comes with « summer plan »

At Zaventem airport, the Aviation Police checks the passports of passengers of flights outside the Schengen zone. In recent months, the waiting times have sometimes risen high, according to the police unions due to staff shortage and poor software. Some passengers had to sit down for a few hours.

Because the situation may not get better in the busy summer months and the summer vacation is coming, the director of the aviation police ordered the staff to reduce passport controls at long queues in that period. For this he invokes Article 9 of the Schengen Convention, which allows this in unforeseen circumstances.

Read too. « A very serious security leak »: Police Baas does not want strict border controls in long queues on Zaventem

According to the trade unions for security leaks: the passports would no longer be scanned, so that they are no longer intercepted. The same would apply to people without legal residence, because the visa is no longer checked.

Minister of the Interior Bernard Quintin (MR) asked the aviation police in early May after consultation to take measures against the long queues. « Waiting times of two hours or more are not only annoying for travelers, but also harmful to the image of Brussels and Belgium. We have to tackle this, » he said. But he was not consulted about the decision to significantly reduce the passport controls during busy periods in the summer months, it sounds on his cabinet.

The minister also opposes it, according to a response on Saturday. « We have given the police the instruction to perform border controls correctly, to identify passengers who enter our country and to fight illegal migration, » he says.

At the beginning of next week, Quintin will come up with a « summer plan » to strengthen the teams at the airport and to shorten waiting times.