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 1,800km of walls and fences 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.

Greece was dubbed “Europe’s shield” in 2020 by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen after guards fought off people with teargas on its border with Turkey. Athens completed a high tech wall on the border this summer.

Sound cannons - which blast intolerable noise levels at migrants, equivalent to a shotgun going off - lie in wait atop vehicles, and the steel fence is highly militarised.

Sound cannons - which blast intolerable noise levels at migrants, equivalent to a shotgun going off - lie in wait atop vehicles, and the steel fence is highly militarised.

Officers patrol the 5m-high steel fence along the Evros river - but the defence is more than just walls
Officers patrol the 5m-high steel fence along the Evros river - but the defence is more than just walls
'Long Range Acoustic Devices' or LRADs emit ear-piercing beams of sound
'Long Range Acoustic Devices' or LRADs emit ear-piercing beams of sound
Greek border guards launched tear gas towards thousands of migrants at a border gate with Turkey in 2020
Greek border guards launched tear gas towards thousands of migrants at a border gate with Turkey in 2020

Requests to visit the wall are denied, and unauthorised observers are arrested, leading to an effective blackout zone.

The wall was finished this summer; further expansion is planned

Strongman leader Viktor Orban built border fences with Serbia and, controversially, with fellow EU member Croatia at the height of the migration crisis, which witnessed 1.8m migrants flee to Europe.

The barbed wire and steel column fence, which spans Hungary's border with Serbia and Croatia, is fortified with cameras and other tech. 3,000 soldiers and guards patrol the fence and loudspeakers in several languages warn against illegal entry. Heat sensors monitor the approach.

Keeping watch at Roszke, 110 miles southeast of Budapest
Keeping watch at Roszke, 110 miles southeast of Budapest
Refugee children peer through at Hungarian border police
Refugee children peer through at Hungarian border police
Under surveillance at the Serbian border
Under surveillance at the Serbian border

Hungary has repeatedly requested €1bn for its fencing from the EU ever since but Brussels insists, so far and despite building pressure, it will never fund walls or razor wire. But it has given Hungary at least €22m in “emergency assistance” to strengthen its borders since the 2015 crisis; and the EU is happy to pay for the associated technology on any of its borders - like surveillance systems and drones.

There will probably be more skirmishes with the EU over how Hungary approaches migration; the European Court of Justice ruled its pushbacks in Serbia were illegal last year and has said its asylum rules break EU law.

The next big challenge is on the bloc’s north east border, where Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko has effectively “weaponised” migrants in retaliation for sanctions, allegedly escorting them to the Polish border for entry to the EU.

180km of barbed wire has already been placed and there are plans for a reinforced fence along more of the border.

Razor wire girdles a forest near Czeremcha, north-eastern Poland
Razor wire girdles a forest near Czeremcha, north-eastern Poland
A Kurdish family from Dohuk in Iraq, including a five-month-old child, wait on the Belarus side of the border
A Kurdish family from Dohuk in Iraq, including a five-month-old child, wait on the Belarus side of the border
Armed Polish soldiers patrol along the Polish-Belarusian border
Armed Polish soldiers patrol along the Polish-Belarusian border

As the crisis has passed, neighbouring countries Lithuania and Latvia are also turning to walls of steel and barbed wire, fortifying their borders with Belarus.

The walls are mainly a show of force, experts say, largely to soothe fears among voters. They just push migrants elsewhere rather than solve the underlying problems that drive them to flee their homes. They are also possibly illegal, preventing the right to asylum, human rights groups add. Despite this, the European Commission is under increasing national pressure to relax its resistance to EU funds being used to build them.

But Fortress Europe is about far more than land walls. It also involves “outreach” efforts that form a more sinister virtual wall, off-shore.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in North Africa, where a virtual wall established by the EU has slashed the numbers of migrants crossing the Mediterranean in recent years.

These efforts involve paying countries to host migrants, preventing them from reaching Europe - like the controversial EU/Turkey deal. It is also why so many detention centres have sprung up in countries including Libya, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia.

The EU funds coastguard operations in Libya, which see migrants attempting to reach Europe returned to squalid camps
The EU funds coastguard operations in Libya, which see migrants attempting to reach Europe returned to squalid camps
Immigrants rescued by the Libyan coastguard in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast, arrive at a naval base in Tripoli
Immigrants rescued by the Libyan coastguard in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast, arrive at a naval base in Tripoli
Final destination: a detention centre in Zawiyah, 45km west of Tripoli
Final destination: a detention centre in Zawiyah, 45km west of Tripoli
Alongside physical walls there are also burgeoning reinforcements for the fortress. Frontex, the EU's bloc-wide border force and coast guard, is growing at pace.
Frontex was established in 2005 with a budget of€6million
in 2021 it was€6million
Rising in 2027 to€543million
Its manpower is set to jump sevenfold over the same period, from 1,400 staff
to 10,000
This issue is not going away: climate change and instability will only force more desperate people to flee. And the EU, its member countries, and the UK remain bitterly divided over who should shoulder the burden.
Meanwhile, Fortress Europe is pulling up the drawbridge and padlocking the gates.

The location of the walls on this map are based on publicly accessible data, government replies and news reports. It has not been possible to verify the exact location of each wall despite requests to the relevant authorities.

SOURCES

Centre Delàs d'Estudis per la Pau, Stop Wapenhandel, Transnational Institute, Global Detention Project, government documents

PICTURE CREDITS

1.Rafal Milach/Magnum Photos 2.AFP 3.AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos 4.Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu/Getty 5.Anodolu 6.Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty 7.AFP 8.EPA/Darko Dozet 9.Marcin Obara/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock 10.Wojtek Radwanski/AFP 11.Marcin Obara/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock 12.Taha Jawashi/AFP/Getty 13.Taha Jawashi/AFP/Getty 14.Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty 15.Reuters/Alexandros Avramidis

CREDITS

Rachel Jones, Bruno Riddy, Ellie Littlemore, Abby Rose, Joe Barnes, Jonathan Holmes and European correspondents