In mid-September, Germany imposed controls on all nine neighboring countries for six months to curb illegal immigration and boost security after an Islamist knife attack last month.
Since then, around 1,800 people have been detained at Germany’s land borders and 40,000 have been turned back, Interior Minister Nancy Feser told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.
For several years now, Germany has implemented border controls on its borders with Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
In addition, on September 16, it launched police checkpoints at the borders with France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.
“We need these controls until the protection of the EU’s external borders is significantly strengthened,” Fezer said.
She added that the number of deportations of rejected asylum seekers has increased by more than 50% in the past two years.
Germany is the only country in Europe that has deported dangerous criminals to Afghanistan, Feser added, and vowed to continue doing so.