refugees
Irregular migration: Faeser extends border controls
According to Nancy Faeser, Germany was again the main destination country in Europe last year. photo
© Paul Zinken/dpa
Due to the high level of migration at the EU’s external borders, the selective border controls at the German-Austrian land border will be extended by six months.
The selective border controls at the German-Austrian land border are to be extended by another six months. This emerges from a letter from Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser to the EU Commission, which is available to the German Press Agency.
In it, the SPD politician writes that there is no foreseeable long-term decline in irregular migration to Central and Western Europe. “It is worrying that in 2022 the number of irregular migrations detected at the EU’s external borders was the highest since 2016.” Germany was again the main destination country in Europe last year, Faeser continues in her letter.
In view of the increasing number of migrants, the accommodation situation in German federal states and municipalities has become even more difficult. Therefore, it feels compelled to order internal border controls for a further six months on the main route of irregular migration to Germany, effective May 12.
Germany has controlled the border with Austria since 2015
Actually, there are no stationary identity checks at the borders in the Schengen area, to which 26 European countries belong. In recent years, however, several countries have used an exception and partially reintroduced border controls. Germany has been controlling Bavaria on the border with Austria since autumn 2015 after tens of thousands of refugees and other migrants made their way from Greece to Western Europe via the Balkan route. Like her predecessor, Horst Seehofer (CSU), Faeser had also notified the EU Commission of an extension of the temporary border controls.
In her e-mail to the Commission, Faeser writes that she supports “our joint efforts at European level to do everything necessary to continue to maintain the border-free Schengen area”. In order to achieve this, it is necessary, among other things, for the Member States to be given suitable instruments for better control and management of migration events at the European external borders. Reliable registration and recording at the external borders are planned but not yet decided. The Federal Minister of the Interior warned: “As long as these have not yet been decided and implemented, there is a risk for the Schengen area with open internal borders.”