Air carriers operating in Romania will have to send to the Border Police data about their passengers, according to an act adopted by the Government yesterday. The act was passed for the purpose of setting up the necessary conditions for the improvement of border control and combating illegal migration. This act is taking the Romanian legislation in accordance with the European norms and policies in the area – Directive 82 (2004) setting an obligation for air carriers to report passenger’s data.

The procedure proposed by the normative act will contribute to the improvement of border controls by removing delays generated by Border Police checks regarding the validity and authenticity of the travel documents as well as by shortening waiting times for double checking the identity of foreigners who intend to cross the state border. Before sending the data, air carriers must inform the passengers that their personal details would be disclosed to the competent authority. The competent authority has to destroy the recordings containing the data sent by the air carrier within 24 hours of receipt, but not before the arrival of the passengers to the Romanian border crossing point and the closure of their control formality. The same obligation goes for the air carriers who collected and sent the data.

After Romania’s accession to the EU, the obligation of sending the passengers’ details will only apply to fares originated in a third party state, flying to a Romanian border crossing point.

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