The EU’s idyllic system of passport-free travel amongst its member states is being destroyed by terrorist threats and unchecked immigration, drastically altering the face of Europe day by day.

In an effort by governments to reclaim their sovereignty and strengthen national security in order to protect citizens, border checks are popping up all over the European Union.

Eleven Schengen countries, ranging from France to Slovakia, and Sweden to Germany, have reinstated long-standing border controls, such as identity checks, passport checks, police interviews, static checkpoints, and vehicle inspections, according to a comprehensive map created by the Mail.

The Mail obtained an EU report on the new controls, which states that many nations think border checks are necessary to prevent “infiltration” by terrorists from the Middle East posing as migrants and increasing pressure on overburdened by asylum reception centres.

For instance, Italy increased border checks this month with Slovenia, citing the Israel-Hamas conflict as the reason for the “increased threat of violence within the EU” and the possibility of terrorists entering the country due to “constant migratory pressure from land and sea.”

Slovenia responded by declaring that it was conducting border checks with Croatia and Hungary and that it was dealing with “threats to public order and internal security” in addition to issues similar to those faced by Italy.

The Schengen treaty, which was signed nearly 40 years ago and permits unrestricted travel between France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, is in direct opposition to the border restrictions.

Taking its name from the region where the treaty was signed, which is also where Germany, France, and Luxembourg converge, it quickly encompassed most of the rapidly growing EU.

Schengen rules permit anyone entering the EU to travel between member states without a passport and without being subject to identity checks until they depart.

The policy, hailed as ‘the crown jewel of European integration’ by politicians and bureaucrats in Brussels, has come under fire for serving as a magnet for terrorists and migrants.

A third of a million illegal immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers entered the EU legally through its external borders last year and were subsequently free to move about the EU as they pleased under Schengen regulations.

This month, migration expert Alberto-Horst Neidhardt of the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies issued a warning, stating that tightening borders demonstrated ‘the fragility of the Schengen zone’.

He continued, ‘large numbers’ of migrants arriving in southern Europe are able to travel freely across the continent to countries like Germany, which saw a sharp increase in asylum applications to a quarter of a million last year, thanks to Schengen.

The pro-immigration Greens, who are part of Germany’s ruling coalition, have expressed concern over police data indicating that 20,000 illegal immigrants entered the nation in September alone. This was in addition to the 92,119 immigrants that arrived in the previous six months, from January to the end of August.

According to German officials, this year will see the largest influx of undocumented migrants since 2016, the year that then-Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed Syrian refugees from their home country, effectively opening Europe to all.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin stated that the country’s citizens are searching for “decisions in a Europe surrounded by unstable lands.” France has reinstated checks at all of its internal EU borders.

“Talking about [regulating] immigration is talking about our sovereignty—choosing for ourselves who we want to welcome and who we want to keep separate.”

Denmark, which is currently keeping an eye on Germany’s land and maritime borders, claims that terrorists, organized crime, and illegal immigration pose a “significant threat” to its internal security. It declared that it might soon start checking passengers arriving by plane from other EU countries.

Sweden alerts the world that it is monitoring all of its EU borders because of Islamic terrorism and the grave threat it poses to national security. Andrej Plenkovic, the prime minister of Croatia, has praised the tighter borders across Europe: There are more major crises engulfing the EU now than at any other point in the previous 30 years.