Brussels, 24/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - After operation Mos Maiorum which was conducted in October of last year and which saw the police force (18,000 police officers) of the Schengen member states “apprehend” 20,000 people who had overstayed their Schengen visas or authorisations to remain, the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the EU will, in April, oversee operation Amberlight, which will share the objective of cracking down on “overstayers”, the NGO Statewatch reported on Monday 23 March.
Amberlight will run from 1 to 14 April and from 18 to 30 April and border police will challenge any one whose visa is found to have expired and who should have left the EU. Checks may be carried out at land or sea borders, says the Latvian Presidency in a note dating from January. Frontex will support participating countries.
Among the issues justifying this kind of operation, says the note, Frontex does not know whether third-country nationals depart from the member states where they overstayed or from another in order to conceal the violation. Neither does Frontex know which Schengen states are most affected by overstay cases since member states do not collect data on overstayers.
According to the note, in 2013, 344,888 cases of people staying illegally in the EU were detected, most relating to short-stay visa holders. In the second quarter of 2014, there were 100,647 detections of illegal stay in the EU, an increase of 15% compared to last quarter and 22% more than one year ago, the note also reveals.
Operation Mos Maiorum was not welcomed by NGOs or by a number of MEPs. In fact, this kind of operation is conducted by every European Presidency but Italy gave it greater publicity during its six months at the helm. (Solenn Paulic)