Thuringia’s Prime Minister Ramelow is sounding the alarm: his country is “at the limit” in view of the increasing number of refugees. His interior minister suspects a Russian campaign is behind the influx of migrants.
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow has expressed concern about the influx of many migrants into his state. “The state and municipalities are at their limit,” said the left-wing politician to the “Rheinische Post”. The state’s initial reception center in Suhl has long since taken in more people than seems justifiable: “Regular operations there are based on 800 people, we are at over 1,000. And we continue to have a strong influx.”
However, Ramelow rejected the Union’s demands for stationary controls at the German borders in the east. The European Schengen area, where no permanent checks on persons take place, must continue to apply. “Deploying police in the Thuringian Forest just for show purposes doesn’t help.” Rather, the solidarity distribution system in Europe must function and smuggling crime must be combated with a “European-African solidarity,” said Ramelow. “And everyone who is here would have to have a work permit after three months so that everyone can and must look after themselves.” Then “the myth about the threat posed by refugees” will stop, says Ramelow.
According to figures from the Free State, 4,055 asylum seekers arrived in Thuringia in 2021, and 6,199 in 2022. More than 3,900 new asylum applications were submitted in the first half of 2023. According to the Königstein key, around 2.7 percent of all refugees arriving in the Federal Republic are allocated to the federal state.
Targeted campaign by Russia and Belarus?
Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) accused Russia and Belarus of exploiting refugees to put pressure on Germany. “Behind the growing migration numbers via Eastern Europe is a targeted campaign by Russia and Belarus,” Maier told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “The autocrats in Moscow and Minsk want to destabilize Germany – and they are also using migration as a means of pressure.”
The authorities discovered that migrants were flying from Syria and Turkey to Russia and were then being smuggled from there in an organized manner via Belarus to Poland and Germany, said Maier. “So many people in such a short time can only escape in an organized manner, especially through dictatorships like Belarus or autocracies like Russia.” He spoke of a “targeted instrumentalization of migration by states like Russia.”
“Clear stop sign”
In addition to the increased fight against criminal smuggling networks, the SPD domestic politician also called for “a clear stop signal” from the European Union towards Russia and Belarus. “We cannot tolerate any abuse of people in need by the governments in Russia and Belarus,” said Maier. Poland’s border guards need “more rights from the EU on the border with Belarus in order to prevent illegal entries, to carry out asylum procedures quickly on site and then to carry out direct returns at the border in a targeted manner.”
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, irregular migration via Russia and Belarus to the EU and on to Germany is currently a “border police focus”. The federal police have therefore increased the veil search. According to the ministry, from January to July 2023, the police registered around 21,000 unauthorized entries at the German borders with Poland and the Czech Republic.
Saxony’s Interior Minister: Scholz must “make migration his business”
Criticism of the current situation also comes from Saxony: Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) criticized the federal government’s behavior in migration policy. “Germany should first and foremost fight to ensure that external border protection becomes better,” he said on Deutschlandfunk. Chancellor Olaf Scholz must “finally make the issue his business” and also conclude agreements with safe countries of origin, as his predecessor Angela Merkel did with Turkey. “We are thereby preventing illegal entries and opening the way for the legal immigration of workers and skilled workers that Germany needs.” We have “never been so close” to a common European asylum system, said Schuster. “I would expect Germany, and ideally together with France, to play a much stronger pacesetting role.”
In view of the precarious situation, Schuster believes that stationary controls are now also necessary at the Saxon borders. Rejection is only possible in the course of this, not in the event of a veiled search, he contradicted the opinion of Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. When people cross the border line, they enter the country and can only be pushed back in a long process that often fails. It is incomprehensible that Faeser would extend these controls in Bavaria and refuse them for Saxony, “where the numbers are twice as high, I don’t understand that.”
“Local acceptance is falling significantly”
Meanwhile, the President of the Baden-Württemberg Association of Cities, Frank Mentrup, warned of the population’s growing resentment towards refugees. “What I notice is that local acceptance is falling significantly,” he told the dpa news agency. It is important to achieve a greater understanding of political processes and decisions and also the limits of political control.
The increasing number of refugees is accompanied by a general problem of acceptance of politics, which does not arise from this issue alone. Politicians should not make the mistake of working with threats or with announcements that seem like threats, said the Social Democrat, who is Karlsruhe’s mayor. Instead, clear, unambiguous announcements are needed that people then stick to. “We need to join forces on equal terms.”
For example, he experienced that a municipality was promised that it would only accommodate Ukrainian refugees in an accommodation. This was also accepted by the population. Four weeks later, refugees from other nations were assigned by the country and moved there. “Of course, a lot is ruined through tactics and insincerity,” said Mentrup. “We need a new effort to build mutual trust between the state and local authorities.”
Practical processes also urgently need to be accelerated. For example, it should not happen that the employment agency needs three months to check whether a refugee who already has a job can take up it. “All of this is taking far too long,” said Mentrup.