The border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland that have been in place since October will be extended once again – until December 15th. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the controls are intended to put a stop to smugglers.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is extending border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland until December 15th. The Interior Ministry announced this on Platform X in the evening. The Federal Police can now continue to flexibly “use the entire package of stationary and mobile border police measures” depending on the current situation.
Border controls are not actually planned within the Schengen area and must be reported to Brussels. This should happen shortly, a spokesman for Faeser said at midday.
On October 16, the minister instructed the federal police to carry out stationary checks at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, as has been the case at the land border with Austria since 2015. Faeser had initially notified the EU Commission of fixed border controls on these sections for ten days and then extended them twice by 20 days each.
Asylum seekers are allowed to enter
Since October 16, around 3,300 unauthorized entries have been detected at the border with Poland and 1,100 unauthorized entries have been prevented, the spokesman said. “That means these measures are working and they should be continued now.”
If someone is caught at the border and makes it clear that they want to apply for asylum, they are usually allowed to enter. The aim of the controls as a whole is to “put a stop to the increasingly unscrupulous and brutal smuggling crime,” said the spokesman.
More than 30 smugglers have recently been caught on the German-Polish border. At the same time, from Faeser’s point of view, it is important that the negotiations on the common European asylum system move forward.