Dawie, I believe the part of my post you misinterpreted was that the countries of the Schengen zone enter into international treaties with other countries based upon information exchange between the governments and the associated security forces.
For example, the United States and the Schengen bloc have standardized agreements on types of background checks those countries perform and a certain level of transparency between the databases of those countries.
A person coming in from South Africa or from Russia and presenting their passport to enter a Schengen country does not meet the criteria for information exchange between the governments of the affected countries.
Asserting that South Africa or Russia is 'no more corrupt than any other country' is pretty laughable, by the way. Your arguments will have more credibility if your opinion is based a little firmer in reality.
To be brutally honest.
Citizens of certain countries have very thoroughly checked backgrounds to be issued a passport. That's the concept behind Schengen. There are other statistical conditions as well as treaty agreements involved, too.Dawie wrote:If background checks are so important, why is no one checking the backgrounds of all those people who come into Schengenland visa-free?
Let's not compare apples to banana's here ....joesoap101 wrote:also less corrupt or at the same level than most of the new EU states that joined in 2004/2007
They are in the European Union .. there are numerous visa-free treaty agreements. Even if the corruption level is the same (which I would argue, it is not), there is still a great deal more direct cooperation between the governments and police agencies.
Having lived in Latvia for nearly four years, one thing I can assure you of is how brutally thorough the documentation and process is. There is an excruciatingly detailed trail of my paperwork through the system, and it is largely electronic and shared throughout Europe and the U.S. now.
The new EU-27 accession states will be coming up to speed rather rapidly, and they have met targets and requirements to be accepted as new member states, no matter the problems that are still before them.
Montenegro, the Ukraine, Moldova and Turkey not meeting requirements for EU accession is for a reason. The EU has no confidence (at this time) in the cooperation and information exchange with those governments needed to interface with the current agreements in place.
The Admin