During the Belgian presidency, the Belgian integrated police will take the initiative to organise a joint operation in a large number of Member States, aimed at mapping the flows of illegal immigration within the European Union.
[police-eu2010.be] The Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985, and the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement, which was signed on 19 June 1990, lead to the abolition of the common borders of the participating Member States and created a territory without internal borders, called the Schengen area. The Agreement provides for a more strict control of the external borders, in close collaboration with the judicial and police authorities and aligns the visa and asylum policies.
However, free movement of persons within the Schengen area also means that the internal borders are no longer systematically controlled, so consequently there are only limited statistics available on the flows of illegal immigration within our Union. (more on police-eu2010.be)
