2024-09-16 07:07:12
The government announced the measure following a series of deadly attacks that have fueled public fears and boosted support for the far-right German party (AfD).
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Sunday said the move was aimed at limiting irregular migration and “put a stop to criminals and identify and stop Islamists at an early stage”.
Border controls will be in place for the first six months and are expected to include temporary features at land crossings and spot checks by the Federal Police.
Poland and Austria have expressed concern and the European Commission has warned that members of the 27-nation bloc must take such steps only in exceptional circumstances.
Germany is in the heart of Europe and borders nine countries that are part of the visa-free Schengen area, designed to allow free movement of people and goods.
Border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland were already in place before the reduction was announced.
These will be extended to Germany’s borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.
Faeser said the government hopes to reduce the impact on people living and working in border areas, promising “cooperation with our neighboring countries”. He also pointed out that there should be “targeted controls, not blanket controls”.
The Interior Ministry however noted that travelers should carry identification when crossing the border.
‘Islamist attack’
In recent weeks, Germany has been rocked by a series of activist attacks, sparking public outrage.
Last month, a knife-wielding man killed three people and injured eight more at a festival in the western city of Solingen.
The Syrian suspect, who has alleged links to the Islamic State group, had planned to flee but managed to evade authorities.
The failure to implement set off a bitter dispute which marked the end of two regional elections in the former communist east, where the anti-immigration AfD won unprecedented results.
With national elections coming up next year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is under intense political pressure to tighten its stance on migrants and asylum seekers.
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Scholz was in Uzbekistan on Sunday to sign a migration agreement for workers to come to Germany, while simplifying the departure procedures in the opposite direction so that “those who must go back come back”, the President said.
Closer to home, the German government has revealed plans to speed up departures to its European partners.
Under EU rules, asylum requests are meant to be handled by the country of origin. The plan has put enormous pressure on countries on Europe’s periphery, where leaders have demanded more burden sharing.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Germany closing its borders meant it would “significantly pass the buck to countries on the outer borders of Europe”.
Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said his country “will not accept refugees from Germany”, while Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk called Germany’s move “unacceptable”.
‘Welcome to the Club’
Warsaw has also struggled with migration and accused Moscow of smuggling people from Africa and the Middle East into Europe by sending them through Belarus to the Polish border.
Berlin on Friday said that Tusk and Scholz had discussed the issue and agreed to strengthen the external borders of the EU, “especially in view of the cynical application of migrants by Belarus”.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, meanwhile, mocked the German president on social media site X, writing: “Bundeskanzler Scholz, welcome to the club! #StopMigration.”
Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-16, many of them Syrian, and has hosted more than a million Ukrainians since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.
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The additional burden on public authorities and integration services in Germany needs to be “taken into account” when talking about new border controls, the Berlin-based interior ministry said.
In the Netherlands, Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Friday unveiled the country’s stricter migration policy, saying he would request an exit from the EU’s common policy on asylum next week.
A four-party coalition dominated by the far-right Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party wants to declare an “asylum crisis” to stem the flow of migrants by setting tougher laws including border controls.
By Raphaelle LOGEROT with Celine LE PRIOUX in Berlin
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