France has announced it will extend internal border controls until April next year.

The current increased checks, introduced due to heightened terrorist threats, were due to end on 31 October.

The controls will be in place along France’s Schengen borders with Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

Travellers have been warned to expect queues and delays.

In September, Germany introduced similar ramped-up checks which have led to traffic jams at the border.

France steps up border controls amid terrorist concerns

France’s current border controls will end on 31 October, but a new set of checks will come into effect from 1 November.

The heightened security measures will be in place until 20 April 2025.

The extension comes after growing concerns over public safety amid threats of terrorist activity and criminal organisations connected to illegal migration.

Where are France’s increased border checks in place?

The new border controls only affect Schengen zone countries – Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

If you are entering France from a non-Schengen country, such as the UK, there will be no change to checks as passport and customs controls are already in place.

It will also not affect the requirement for passport stamps for non-EU nationals or the maximum permitted stay of 90 days in Schengen zone countries.

If you fly into France from any Schengen country other than the six that border it, there will be no change in border controls.

How will France’s new Schengen border controls affect travellers?

Normally, travellers passing between Schengen zone countries can move freely without passport checks.

However, countries are permitted to impose temporary increased controls for a set time period if deemed necessary – as occurred during the COVID pandemic for example.

Citing security concerns, France has chosen to ramp up checks along Schengen borders for land, sea and air travel.

This means travellers from Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany and Italy will have to show a form of ID such as a passport or national ID card.

Non-EU nationals who are resident in France may need to show their carte de séjour too.

Travellers warned of queues at French land border

Travellers most affected will be those crossing into France via land borders. Those arriving by car or bus are advised to allow for extra time.

Germany’s increased security checks have resulted in traffic jams and queues at borders.

Those travelling between France and Germany should be aware they might face checks at both borders.

What other countries have increased checks at Schengen borders?

Austria has increased checks in place with Slovenia and Hungary until 11 November.

Denmark, Norway and Sweden have stepped up border security on all internal borders until 11 November.

In Slovenia, checks are in place at the border with Croatia and Hungary until 21 December.

An investigation into the disappearance of more than 50,000 child migrants has won the European Parliament’s 2024 Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for Journalism.

Led by Dutch journalist Geesje van Haren, the Lost in Europe project found that since 2021, on average nearly 47 migrant children arriving in Europe have gone missing per day.

Van Haren told Euronews that many of these missing children fall victim to human trafficking, or find themselves caught up in the EU’s crackdown on people smuggling gangs.

“Many children are also caught at the borders, and they end up in prison for people smuggling while they were being smuggled themselves. So the EU war against people smuggling works out the other way for minor children. A lot of minor children are in adult detention because of that,” Van Haren explained.

“We do know that our police system and the system fails to protect these children. And we also know that there is a high pressure on police teams who need to investigate this. But there’s also a big pressure on police who has to investigate drugs, things. And most of the time human trafficking is related to also to drugs staff working,” she added.

Documentation failures

The research also uncovered significant inconsistencies in documentation and reporting across 31 countries, including Austria, Germany, and Italy, raising concerns that the actual number of missing children may be higher.

It’s latest findings build on research conducted during an initial investigation in 2021, which revealed that more than 18,000 migrant children went missing in Europe between 2018 and 2020.

“We spoke with from NGOs and experts from out in the field. They say this is just the tip of the iceberg, that there were 51,433 children missing. The last time that we did this investigation, there were only 18,000 children missing back in 2021,” Geesje van Haren told Euronews.

She adds that the team also experienced difficulty in accessing data from some countries, with France offering no response at all and Spain claiming they don’t differentiate between adults and minors in their data.

However, van Haren hopes the new EU pact on migration and asylum will make data collection more stringent, which could reveal even more missing children in the future.

Lost in Europe began investigating the stories of missing or ‘lost’ migrant children following a comment made by a former Europol chief of staff in 2016, who said at the time more than 10,000 migrant minors had gone missing in Europe.

The Lost in Europe team are planning to launch a fresh investigation in three years time.