Doors slamming shut? Migrant crisis threatens Europe's open-border policy

World

Doors slamming shut? Migrant crisis threatens Europe’s open-border policy

Europe’s cherished system of borderless travel is increasingly at risk as countries grapple with record numbers of refugees and migrants clamoring to enter their territory. German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued an unusually sober warning this week that the passport-free Schengen zone of 26 countries was under threat. The system is now creaking under the pressure of the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, as people from Syria, Afghanistan and Africa flood into Europe seeking refuge from war and repression. With Hungary sealing off its main railway station to stop asylum-seekers moving across the European Union, observers fear the genie is out of the bottle and other countries will restore internal borders to curb the flow of humanity.

Since its creation in 1995, the Schengen Area — named after a border town in Luxembourg — has abolished passport controls for travel between 22 EU countries and non-EU Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Supporters say Schengen has been a boon for Europe’s single market, slashing costs by doing away with armies of border bureaucrats and sweeping away psychological barriers among Europeans.