One of the most cherished freedoms which European Union citizens hold dear is that of borderless travel across the bloc.

Yet yesterday, scenes of chaos were witnessed in Budapest, Hungary, as thousands of newly arrived migrants were prevented from boarding trains to Austria and Germany. Hungary says it is trying to enforce EU law, in terms of making sure that anyone ravelling across borders within the EU must have a valid passport or visa.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that unless matters improve quickly, the EU might have to go back to border control, even for EU citizens. Austria has, to a degree, already done so in checking the papers of motorists who enter the country to ensure that all is in order.

Summits and counter summits are now being organised to try and fathom out a common position in the face of the ever increasing tide of people who are making it into the EU. The routes used to be simple – Libya to Malta or Sicily, or Morocco to the Canaries or Spain.

But now, a whole plethora of routes have sprouted up. The most popular over the summer months is the one from Turkey to Greece and up through the Balkans to Central Europe and on to Germany or beyond. Another more startling one has been discovered through the North of Russia and into Norway, Sweden and Finland.

But there have been others that beggar belief and are testament to the desperation of people. Some have tried to smuggle themselves into countries in suitcases, others fitted around car engines. And of course, as we saw tragically last week, some squeezed into the back of a truck and died of suffocation.

Malta has breathed a huge sigh of relief this summer as Mediterranean Sea patrols have alleviated the burden on our country. That, coupled with the instability in Libya, has resulted in much fewer migrant arrivals than in the past decade.

Some EU leaders are now calling for what Malta had been demanding for many years – mandatory burden sharing. Some small countries, such as Slovenia, are vehemently against such a move. But Chancellor Merkel has said that while Germany is trying to lead by example, if a common position is not found, then the only way forward might be to re-introduce border controls.

This would be a travesty to the people of Europe, many of whom, let us not forget, were still under the iron grip of communism 25 years ago. There is no doubt that this is a crisis. There is also no doubt that Europe’s response to it has been haphazard and lacking, to say the least.  When the last extraordinary summit on migration was organised in the wake of multiple tragedies near Lampedusa, the EU thought it had a problem. While loss of life is always tragic, it seems that now, finally, the magnitude of what has been unfolding for the past decade has really hit political leaders. Better late than never. Now it is time to actually do something concrete about things.