The foundation of the European Union (EU) is based on the principles of free trade and free movement of goods and people within the continent. That free movement of people, however, is being severely tested as never before by the sheer volume of refugees fleeing to Europe, mainly from the Middle East and North Africa.
The Schengen zone allows for visa-free movement from the Baltic to the Nordic nations, allowing travellers to cross from one country to the next, without having to show passports or identification papers. With more than a million refugees now in Europe, and another wave of miserable migration of the desolate and desperate to resume in earnest once winter is over, European nations are looking to shut down Schengen and return to the days of international frontiers across Europe.
In Amsterdam on Monday, EU foreign ministers were divided on what to do, with criticism being heaped on Greece for failing to do enough to stem the flood entering Europe. They discussed freezing the free movement of people inside parts of the bloc for up to a further two years. So far, six nations have reimposed some form of controls, and would like to keep that in place for another two years. Simply put, any move to reimpose border controls undermines the principles of a modern Europe. There is need to find a better way of registering refugees as they enter Europe, documenting them using biometric methods, issuing identification papers and giving them every resource to start over again.
