Open Border

The lifting of border formalities between Germany and Poland has not led to an increase in crime in the north German state of Mecklenburg - West Pomerania, police there said Thursday.

"The situation is normal just as it was before" Poland joined the Schengen zone.

Since Poland and other Eastern European countries joined the Schengen zone, there had been a total of 28 people detained for entering Germany illegally. On Christmas Day, police stopped five Polish taxis carrying 18 Chechen would-be immigrants and sent them back across the border after finding their papers were not in order. While most politicians welcomed the extension of border-free travel to 24 countries, most of them in the European Union, some warned that illegal migration and crime would increase.

Only time will tell if abuses will become unmanageable.