Broke – the search system strikes

After a series of burglaries in the Romandie will be advertised in the Schengen information system (SIS) three people wanted. Hours later, a message arrives at the Federal police in Bern: France reports three arrests.

There are three out of 107 hits in the SIS with respect to Switzerland on a weekend in March. The Federal police has led to this newspaper from Friday evening to Monday morning Protocol. On average, every half an hour, the System proposed. 19'000 times in the whole of last year.

Without the SIS, the Swiss police blind, said a few weeks earlier, the Deputy Director of the Federal police, as he opened with the Minister of justice, Karin Keller-Sutter of the voting campaign for the new weapons law. It is Central for your work, say Swiss police commander. The population on the 19. May no, is the Swiss membership of Schengen on the game and the access to SIS.

The System was not the answer to a world in which crime will always be international, says Benedikt Scherer. He has established the Schengen office of the Federal police, the heart of the SIS in Switzerland. And he directs it since the Start ten years ago. A Return to police work, in the almost only national search, and in rare cases, a message to Interpol will be made, he said this was "a step back into the stone age".

300'000 queries per day

Scherer was in the 90s when the drug squad in Zurich. Despite a scene with addicts and dealers from all over Europe, he says: "We have spared the expense for an international manhunt most of the time. The processes were too complicated, the chances of success too low." Today police officers from all over Switzerland, but also border guards or migration offices, 300'000 queries per day, SIS. A large part takes place automatically in the case of border controls at the airports.

30 police officers to cope with the 24-hour-operation in the Schengen office. On their screens of the SIS looks like an ordinary E-Mail program. A message is a hit, you assume the coordination between the concerned Authorities in Switzerland and the Schengen offices in the other 29 European States connected to the SIS.

Spectacular hits such as the arrest of a gang of thieves are only a small part of it. Also at the evaluated weekend, more than half of the match to Entry bans and so-called discrete registrations. With this Instrument, 150'000 people within the Schengen monitored area. Half a Million people, was banned by the end of 2018, the entry into the border area. "Both of these are with other search systems, such as Interpol is not possible," says Scherer.

privacy advocates criticize, but that the Schengen States monitor too much. Switzerland makes the movements of around 200 people to record. This is allowed if there is evidence of a risk to public safety. Such persons are in a neighboring state in a police control, this is detected by SIS. Or it will be made at the port of entry because of the entry in the SIS unobtrusively a few questions. On our weekend there were 200 people five hit in other Schengen countries.

The computer science behind such a System is expensive. About 15 million Swiss francs per year, Switzerland is for the police cooperation in the Schengen area, without staff costs. The total expenditure for the Schengen are at about 60 million per year.

father at the airport stopped

"SIS has revolutionized the investigation," says Scherer. As the largest Plus the speed. Until after a crime in Switzerland, an international warning goes out, it takes not days, but minutes.

Clearly this can be seen in child abductions. There's about a father from Aargau, who had left on a Thursday night after a quarrel in the apartment with the children. At midnight, his wife reported to the police, the children have been preemptively recorded in SIS. On Friday morning, the man was arrested at the airport in Munich. He wanted the children to Canada. 161 people had written in Switzerland at the end of 2018 preventive. At our weekend, three children were added.

In the case of a ' no ' to the weapons law, much is at stake

About the Schengen threatens-From
will be Voted on on 19. May about a new weapons law. A no membership of Switzerland to the common European border Schengen area is at risk. Because of Schengen, Switzerland is committed to a new EU Directive on weapons. If it does not, this sets in motion a process that, at the end, with great probability, the Schengen exclusion.

waiting in line at the border
Between the member States of Schengen are held, in principle, no systematic checks on persons at the border. The Schengen control External border sharply. Switzerland were out of Schengen, would arise from the point of view of its neighbouring States, a new outer border. You would be required to control on their borders to Switzerland in a systematic way.

Additional asylum procedure
Without a Schengen-membership is participation of Switzerland to the Dublin agreement is impossible. This determines which European state for an asylum-seeker is responsible. As a non-member Switzerland could deport asylum seekers who have already put in a Dublin member state request, there. Switzerland would have to handle additional requests for asylum.

visa apply extra for Switzerland
Within the Schengen uniform Visa for short-term permits. As a Non-Schengen member, Switzerland could once again determine its own Visa policy. The cons: tourists with a Schengen visa could no longer enter the country without additional effort. Third-country nationals with Swiss residence permit would differ depending on the nationality in the Schengen-space visa.

High costs
last year, the Federal Council submitted, on behalf of the SP, a report of the cost of a Schengen exit. This would have a consequence for Switzerland, therefore, high costs. Mainly due to congestion at the borders. But also the tourism industry could annually avoid several Hundred million Swiss francs. Most of the border regions of Basel, Geneva and Ticino would be affected.

(editing Tamedia)

Created: 03.04.2019, 10:58 PM