(Brussels Times) The system of Passenger Name Record (PNR) in operation in Belgium since January 2018 has managed to track down 94 suspected terrorists and suspects involved in a variety of crimes, according to the government’s crisis centre.
Under the PNR system, airlines are committed to providing all the information they have on passengers who are due to arrive at, depart from or transit through one of Belgium’s six airports. The information has to be handed over 48 hours in advance to BelPIU, a team within the crisis centre made up of specialists from the local and federal police, state security, customs and military intelligence.
The centre qualifies its results, however, by pointing out that 40 of the 94 terrorism suspects were on an existing register of foreign terrorist fighters (FTF), and that none of the suspects captured by PNR is actively wanted or has ever been the subject of a conviction.
