If possible, there should be no more border controls within Europe, says the Interior Minister. But you have to know who is coming into the country. Against this background, Seehofer calls the Polish border fence “legitimate”.
In one Interview with the Picture on sunday Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) has spoken out in favor of increased protection of the border with Poland. Eight hundred units of the Federal Police are already in action on the German-Polish border. “If necessary, I am ready to step up there even further. We will closely monitor the border area and the green border with Poland,” said Seehofer.
Migration pressure on Germany and Europe is still high, said the Minister of the Interior. As of Thursday, the Federal Police reported 3 751 unauthorized entries with a connection to Belarus for the current month. In the current year, a total of 6,162 unauthorized entries related to Belarus were detected by the federal police. The German-Polish border is the focus. Many of the migrants and refugees arriving there come from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Seehofer affirmed that there should be no more border controls within Europe. “But that only works if the external border protection works.” But you have to know who is entering the country. Against this background, the Minister of the Interior supports the Polish fence on the border with Belarus: “It is legitimate for us to protect the external border in such a way that undetected border crossings at the green border are prevented. Whoever wants to enter must meet the requirements and that must be controlled will.”
Migrants, mostly from the Arab region, have been trying harder to get into the EU via Belarus for months. They also use the route via Poland to Germany. The governments in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are accusing the Belarusian ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, of bringing refugees from crisis regions to the EU’s external border in an organized manner. Lukashenko announced at the end of May that Minsk would no longer prevent migrants from continuing to travel to the EU – in response to tightened Western sanctions against his country. Since then, reports of attempted illegal border crossings at the EU’s external borders with Belarus have increased.