Home Secretary Mahmood to discuss access to police databases with EU — The Guardian

In the United Kingdom, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will meet European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Magnus Brunner on Monday. The sides will discuss migration, border management, law enforcement cooperation and counterterrorism, The Guardian reports.

Access to European systems

Among the topics of the talks is the possibility for the United Kingdom to regain access to certain police and security databases, which the country lost after Brexit. This includes the new Eurodac database, which contains fingerprints and facial images of asylum seekers aged six and older, as well as flags concerning people linked to terrorism or serious crimes.

London also wants to gain access to the Schengen Information System, SIS. It contains data on missing persons, stolen items, vehicles, licence plates and fugitives crossing the EU’s internal borders. According to EU data, around 20 million searches are conducted in SIS every day, mostly concerning cars.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

Migration and counterterrorism

This will be Mahmood and Brunner’s second meeting in two months. Prime Minister Andy Burnham previously told MPs that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had shown willingness to discuss restoring the exchange of migration data between the United Kingdom and the EU. He said he would seek a practical agreement on this issue at the EU–UK summit in November.

Brunner also plans to meet MI5 Director General Ken McCallum, visit the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, and speak with representatives of the British centre on child sexual abuse about joint efforts to combat such crimes. According to Frontex data due to be published on Monday, the number of English Channel crossings in small boats fell by 43%.