AP Angela Merkel says Schengen may need to be reconsidered amid the growing migrant issue

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German chancellor Angela Merkel said the Schengen zone, which allows people to move across 26 European countries without the need for passports checks, could not continue unless all nations take in a share of immigrants. Europe has been besieged by refugees coming from Africa and the Middle East all summer. Hungary, which is erecting a steel fence to stop the influx, warns the issue is reaching "unmanageable levels". Mrs Merkel admitted the lack of passport checks within Europe was not helping the issue.

If we don't arrive at a fair distribution then the issue of Schengen will arise - we do not want that Mrs Merkel

She said: "If we don't arrive at a fair distribution then the issue of Schengen will arise - we do not want that. "We stand before a huge national challenge. It will be a central challenge not only for days or months but for a long period of time." Germany is set to receive 800,000 asylum seekers over 2015, quadruple the amount in the year previous. Mrs Merkel said tackling the crisis was imperative for Europe's future and urged other countries take in more migrants to keep the union strong. She added: "Europe as a whole must move and its states must share the responsibility for refugees seeking asylum. "Universal civil rights so far have been closely linked with Europe and its history - it was one of the founding motives of the European Union.

AP Hungary is building a four metre high fence on its border with Serbia to stop migrants getting in

"If Europe fails on the question of refugees, this close connection with universal civil rights will be destroyed and it won't be the Europe we want." But some Schengen countries are already bringing in their own measures to stop the flow of migrants. This weekend Austria brought in new checks at its border with Hungary, which itself is building a steel fence to stop an influx of immigrants arriving from Serbia. Austria's increased checks, which it denied violated the Schengen Agreement, had caused 15 miles of queues across Hungary. Konrad Kogler, director general for public security in Austria, said: "These are not border controls. "It is about ensuring that people are safe, that they are not dying, on the one hand, and about traffic security, on the other."