Slovakia says Europe’s Schengen zone has ‘fallen apart’

Europe’s Schengen passport-free zone has “fallen apart” amid the sharp escalation of a refugee and migrant crisis, Slovakia’s foreign minister says.

“Schengen has de facto fallen apart,” Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak tells reporters in Bratislava, adding that Slovakia was prepared to offer material and personnel support to beef up security along the 28-member European Union’s border.

Record numbers of refugees have entered the EU by sea and land this year as hundreds of thousands flee conflicts in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

“Under normal circumstances, it’s difficult to get a Schengen visa, and now there are tens of thousands of people walking around here without anyone checking them,” Lajcak says.

“So, do we have Schengen, or don’t we?”

Since its creation in 1995, the Schengen area — named after a border town in Luxembourg — has abolished passport controls for travel between 22 of the EU’s 28 countries, plus non-EU Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.