The Ministry of the Interior assures that the data provided by tourism agents through the new traveler registry has made it possible to locate 18,584 people who were under a search and arrest warrant. These are mainly alleged criminals for whom there was a police or judicial requirement in procedures linked to terrorism, organized crime or serious crime. This was confirmed this Wednesday by sources from the department headed by Fernando Grande Marlaska in a meeting with journalists about this registry, which begins to operate on a mandatory basis next Monday, December 2, but has been operational since 2022.
Last October, the Ministry of the Interior decided to delay the complete application of the royal decree by which hotels, tourist apartments or rental car companies must begin to collect and deliver to the Secretary of State for Security (SES) almost three times as much data. of its customers than until now, including sensitive information such as credit card and bank account numbers or personal addresses.
The new regulation has the tourism industry up in arms, which mainly questions the administrative burden it places on the sector; But it has also angered data protection experts who see the new regulation as an “invasion of privacy.” Interior justifies this greater collection of information as a way to fight terrorism and organized crime and points out that “the logistics of accommodation and the acquisition or use of motor vehicles” take on special relevance in the modus operandi of criminals.
The registry will go into operation next Monday, as planned, but companies will have to transmit to the application lodging sessions “those data that they already collect on a regular basis in the exercise of their activity” and that appear in the royal decree. The only new information that will be required starting this Monday is the kinship relationship between the travelers in the event that one is a minor. It is information that the Interior considers “very relevant and essential” in the face of procedures on sexual abuse of minors, kidnappings… Regarding the rest of the new data contained in the royal decree – telephone number, email, among others -, the department will submit to public consultation a ministerial order that will “facilitate” the requirement of this data.
Until now, the data that those who carry out lodging or vehicle rental activities have to collect are those that appear in the official documents that travelers carry, such as ID or passport. Many establishments use an automated system with document readers that go directly to each reservation and generate a file that is sent to the authorities every night, industry sources explain.
These data were sent to the National Police Corps or the Civil Guard and now the new regulation requires that they be transmitted to an application of the Secretary of State for Security, called lodging sessions. And that is what has made it possible to locate the aforementioned 18,584 people who appeared in national signaling databases or in the Schengen information system. This application has been active since 2022. Since then, 61,540 hotel establishments, 1,094 travel agencies, 222 digital platforms and 1,720 vehicle rental companies have already provided data.
The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations (CEHAT), which represents more than 16,000 establishments with a total of 1.8 million beds, has announced that it will take “legal action” upon the entry into force of this royal decree. The employers denounce the “lack of responses” from the Government and “the negative impact that this regulation will have for the hotel sector and the travelers themselves.”
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