migration
Politicians accuse Faeser of whitewashing rejections
Nancy Faeser Faeser rejects calls for more border controls. photo
© Bernd Settnik/dpa
There are stationary controls in Germany only at the border with Austria. Faeser rejects calls from the CDU for more controls. The disagreements are also about numbers.
The domestic spokesman for the Union faction, Alexander Throm (CDU), accuses Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faser (SPD) presented a dubious handling of numbers on rejections at German borders. Information from the ministry on the Swiss border is an “attempt at deception,” Throm told the German Press Agency in Berlin.
In the event of rejection, the federal police refuse people entry directly at the border if they do not meet the necessary conditions and do not apply for asylum.
In the first half of 2023, a total of 12,589 people were rejected at German borders, according to information from the ministry to Throm. This is also available to the dpa. Rejections at the Swiss border accounted for the largest proportion of 4787, followed by the Austrian border with 4489 rejections and German airports with 3120 rejections. In the German seaports and at all other borders, the numbers are considerably lower.
However, a large part of the Swiss figures are still due to rejections on Swiss territory, as the ministry writes in its reply to Throm. According to initial calculations, around 4,200 of the “entry-preventing measures” took place there. The basis is an agreement with Switzerland that allows the federal police to work there, as a ministry spokesman explained on request. “Third-country nationals who do not meet the entry requirements” would be prevented from continuing their journey into Germany. These are rejections under the German Residence Act, just on foreign territory.
numbers and claims
The whole thing doesn’t have the same effect, argues Throm. “An entry ban in Switzerland does not actually prevent someone from traveling to Germany anyway.” The first deputy federal chairman of the German police union (DPolG) federal police, Manuel Ostermann, also considers the procedure to be ineffective. “This is not border protection. The only effective measure would be border controls reported in Brussels, as there have been for years on the border with Austria,” he told dpa. Anyone who has entered the country illegally can hardly be sent back.
Throm demanded: “Nancy Faeser must finally have the most heavily loaded borders checked. This is the only way to stop the smugglers from finally preventing people from entering the country illegally,” he demanded. As evidence, he referred to the figures on the Austrian border. “All other borders are wide open for illegal migration without Nancy Faeser doing anything about it.”
Only at the German-Austrian border are there stationary checks where the federal police can turn people back directly. However, these are also only selective. It remains unclear how many of those who have been rejected will enter Germany elsewhere.