EU free travel zone in danger as nations fence out refugees

European leaders scrambled on Thursday to keep their passport-free travel zone from collapsing, after Germany, Sweden and Slovenia acted on their own to tighten borders or erect fences to slow the relentless influx of people marching into Europe.

A two-day summit held on the Mediterranean island of Malta was meant to focus on how to send back to Africa those who don’t qualify for asylum and discourage others from attempting the risky journey across the seas in search of a better life.

But the gathering of European Union and African leaders quickly became overshadowed by fears that one of Europe’s prized benefits the ease of travel through its Schengen passport-free area was unravelling.

“Saving Schengen is a race against time,” EU Council President Donald Tusk warned. “Without effective control of our external borders, Schengen will not survive,” Tusk said. “We must hurry, but without panic.”

The Schengen travel zone involves 30 nations, including some not in the European Union. Tusk’s remarks came at the end of a migration summit between EU and African leaders, where they signed up to an action plan of short and longer term measures to halt the flow of Africans coming to Europe and steps to send back those who don’t qualify for asylum.

They also signed on to an emergency package of migration aid worth 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion) that select African nations will be able to use.

The Europeans quickly huddled after the summit for informal talks about how to cope with their biggest refugee emergency in decades. The bloc estimates that up to 3 million more people could arrive in Europe seeking sanctuary or jobs by 2017.

“The solution is to have people have a decent life in the country where they were born. It’s impossible to do without money,” he told reporters at the Malta summit.

The mass influx to Europe has overwhelmed border authorities and countries simply to do not have the capacity to accommodate everyone.

Sweden with the highest number of refugees per capita in Europe reintroduced border controls on Thursday.

“When our authorities tell us we cannot guarantee the security and control of our borders, we need to listen,” PM Stefan Lofven said.

EU-Africa refugee action plan

» EU to provide initial 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion) to a new Emergency Trust Fund to support projects aimed at reducing migrant flows from Africa to Europe and displacement of people within Africa.

» Future development cooperation to focus on projects which will reduce migratory pressures: includes fostering jobs and economic growth in areas migrants come from or transit through, a scheme to reduce the development impact of remittances by cutting transfer costs and joint research on the causes of migration.

» Opportunities for legal migration to be "promoted". Only concrete step agreed was an increase in the number of EU-funded scholarships for African students and academics.

» New programmes to be set up by end-2016 to increase protection and economic opportunities of displaced people in the Horn of Africa and North Africa.

» Increased cooperation on combatting illegal immigration and people trafficking, including creation of joint investigative team as a pilot project in key transit country Niger.

» Repatriation of failed asylum seekers to be accelerated. At least 10 African countries agreed to help European states identify illegal immigrants without official documents (making them difficult to deport).