Schengen Border Controls Fatal Mistake - NGO

Introducing Schengen border controls is a fatal mistake that threatens free movement of 400 million Europeans, the director for European affairs of the PRO ASYL human rights organization told Sputnik on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Yulia Shamporova — Germany reinstated border control on its frontier with Austria on Sunday in order to hold back the uncontrolled flow of refugees and asylum seekers coming to the country. According to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, this measure was implemented for registration and security measures.

“It’s a deep crisis of the whole European Union. Free movement for 400 million Europeans is now seriously threatened. Introducing Schengen border controls again is a fatal mistake. It created already a domino effect,” Karl Kopp, who represents the group in the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, said.

Kopp also added that Germany used border controls to force other European Union member states to take more responsibility for receiving asylum seekers.

On Tuesday, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel announced that up to one million asylum claims were expected to be lodged in the country by the end of 2015. According to Berlin, the capacity of the country to host refugees has already reached its limits.

After Germany introduced border control measures, several other countries, including Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia, followed suit, prompting concerns that it could lead to the Schengen borderless area collapse.