Alongside the rising figures of the death toll, which moved to no less than 129 in Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris, pundits of Europe's security were keeping another count on Saturday: the borders that were crossed by the attackers. In spite of the fact that examiners could take a while to set up that figure, the early reports don't seem to be very good for the free travel policy across Europe. After the attack in Paris, the open borders in Europe are being closed.
On Saturday evening, the chief of police in Greece said that the Syrian passport found near the body of one of the attackers shows that the assailant had crossed into Europe through the Greek island of Leros, a prime arrival point during the current year's convergence of an enormous number of Syrian evacuees, according to NBC News.
A Greek minister (name unknown) said that the 25-year-old Syrian had touched base with a group of almost 70 other refugees. Contingent upon his course to Paris from Greece, the shooter would have had to cross some borders in Europe, Politico reported.
German police said that they found firearms, explosives and hand projectiles after they blocked a man from entering Paris on Nov. 5, leaving the German powers with the assumption that the armory was left for the Paris attackers, the Associated Press noted. The capture of the man sneaking these weapons - a 51-year-old from Montenegro - came down to a check on the border in the middle of Germany and Austria.
On a run-of-the-mill day, the borders would be completely public under the E.U.'s travel regulations, much like every one of the fringes between the 26 European nations that make up the Schengen zone. Inside of this area of more than four million square kilometers, in which resides more than 400 million people, there is no inconvenience for travelers to pass.
This wonder of accommodation has been one of the proudest accomplishments of the European Union, which has long maintained that security does not have to come at the expense of openness. An incredible inverse, following a century that saw two world wars battled on European soil, the E.U. demonstrated how peace could be accomplished - not by building dividers - but rather by pulverizing them.
This framework has, in any case, not adjusted so well to the tricky security dangers during this time of terrorism. On Friday night, the first response of the French government to the unraveling savagery was to close the nation. Open outskirts might have helped the terrorists and their accomplices escape, pretty much as it seems to have helped them to carry weapons. The choice to close the European borders, which was not done during the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, felt like another hit to the structural planning of the Schengen zone, which was at that point beginning to split well before the most recent attacks in Paris.
