Europe has been in throes of great debate about putting Schengen rules on hold in the face of the never abating human tide of people that is trying to make its way into Europe from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries.

When the rules were suspended, some jeered. Others said it impinged on people’s personal freedom and right to passport-free travel. But it soon became apparent that the re-introduction of border check unearthed a roaring trade in people moving around Europe on false documentation.

The suspension of Schengen came in the wake of several terrorist attacks in Europe, committed by people with known ties to Islamic State, however, they were making their way round Europe simply because of the fact that they did not have to show documentation at the border.

Malta was one of the countries that did suspend Schengen, for some time, given that the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the Valletta Summit on Migration gave rise to security risks.

However, sometimes, when there is a concentrated effort, by highly skilled individuals to zero in on a fugitive, there is nowhere to hide. Kajetan Poznanski was arrested in Valletta on Wednesday after Maltese police were tipped off by their Polish counterparts that a highly dangerous individual had made his way into Malta. He is suspected of the grisly murder of a 30-year-old woman who he dismembered with a Samurai sword. Poznanski is understood to have fled Poland and made his way to Germany and Italy. No doubt, Polish police would have been working with their counterparts in Germany and Italy to trace the man, through the Europol organisation. He was eventually arrested and is now awaiting extradition to Poland.

At least, the accused will now face justice in Poland to pay for his crimes. He was in possession of a fake passport, which he presumably used as a form of Id. But given that his travels started within the Schengen zone, he would not have needed to use it to gain entry at a port, airport or border crossing.

Granted, the accused has been described by Europol as being highly intelligent and no doubt, he did manipulate the system in calculated way. But if border crossings were in effect (assuming the man did not just jump over a fence at night, he might have been caught earlier. This is not a terrorist, but what seems to be a mentally ill murderer. If he stole a passport and tried to scan it through the system, then something would have flagged a lot earlier and he might have been caught before he even left the mainland, or at least before he tried to make his way to Malta. His next stop was North Africa, which means he probably would have gotten away.

And this is where it proves a point. If you have a specialised team tasked with finding someone, they most probably will, at least at some point in time. But how can Europe dedicate more and more resources to keep tabs on the millions of people that have arrived on the Continent without identification or legal documents. It is impossible. Schengen may have been a very fanciful notion of balancing between sovereignty and federalism, but it looks like we really should rethink the issue and come up with something more secure.