Romania and Bulgaria join the Schengen area

According to the newspaper Le Monde Bulgaria and Romania will join Schengen free travel zone from today, March 31, after 13 years of waiting. This means that these two countries will be able to apply air and sea travel without border checks.

However, Austria opposes the two Eastern European countries. This country became an official member of the bloc due to concerns about the immigration wave, so land border control measures are still maintained.

So currently Schengen has 29 members of which mainly European Union (EU) countries. The Schengen Agreement was established in 1985. This area allows more than 400 million people to travel freely between countries without border controls.

Bulgaria and Romania hope to have can be fully admitted by the end of this year.

In the immediate future, the Romanian government said that Schengen rules will apply to 4 seaports and 17 airports.

Romania also implemented Deploy more border police and immigration officers to airports to assist passengers and detect cases of illegal entry and exit. Romania will conduct random checks to detect people carrying fake documents to deal with human trafficking.