Brussels, 02/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - According to reports in the British media, on Monday 1 September, the British prime minister, David Cameron, announced new measures to tackle terrorism and Europeans leaving to fight in Syria and Iraq in extremist organisations such as the Islamic State (ISIS).
These measures include seizing the passports of possible jihadists. Almost 500 British citizens have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq. This phenomenon also affects other EU countries such as France, Belgium and even Germany and involves more than 2,000 young Europeans, according to different estimates. Cameron would like to prevent Britains who are tempted to go and fight in Syria and will give the police more power at the borders. It will be easier for them to temporarily confiscate passports when suspects attempt to leave the country.
The second and more important measure involves tighter controls of terrorist suspects who have not been charged. It is already possible to impose a curfew on suspects and restrict their internet access. It will now be possible, however, to forcibly remove a suspect, in order to cut him off from the network of people he knows.
On Saturday 30 August during their special meeting, EU leaders also discussed the problem of foreign fighters and called on the Council of Ministers of the EU and the European Parliament to finalise the controversial work on the European PNR project. The latter will enable European airlines to transfer to law enforcement services data about airline passengers travelling from or to third countries, as well as passengers travelling within the EU. (SP)