Schengen zone suspensions

This item appears on page 4 of the March 2016 issue.

The Schengen Agreement, ratified 30 years ago, allows for passport-free travel between 26 cooperating European countries. To combat the influx of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East, some countries within Europe’s Schengen zone have made plans to suspend free movement between their borders for up to two years.
Currently, border controls have been initiated between Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, between Austria and Hungary and between Slovenia and Croatia. To those without travel documents, Hungary has closed its borders with Serbia and Croatia, and Serbia and Croatia have closed their shared road crossings.
Seeking asylum, more than 1,000,000 refugees, the majority from Iraq and Syria, entered Europe in 2015, most through Greece. Germany has had the most applications for asylum. In 2016, as of Jan. 25, at least 30,000 refugees had reached Greece by boat.