Fortress Europe: How 1,800km of walls and fences are keeping desperate migrants out

The European Union says that it builds bridges, not walls. Yet all around Europe, tall walls and fences, bristling with sophisticated technology, are being erected.

Freedom of movement is one of the EU’s most cherished achievements.

But EU leaders are increasingly convinced the only way to preserve it is to ringfence the passport-free Schengen Zone with tough border controls.

In the wake of the crisis on the Poland-Belarus border, which saw Polish troops forcibly hold out thousands of desperate migrants on the body’s Eastern flank, The Telegraph reveals how Fortress Europe has been built.

Thirty-two years on from the fall of the Berlin Wall, there are now either built or under construction on Europe’s borders. That is the equivalent of almost 12 new Berlin Walls, according to our analysis of publicly available documents.