Germany’s Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser, announced on Monday that the country will be setting up temporary border controls at all of its land borders in an effort to reduce irregular migration. The controls will be expanded to include borders with France, Luxembourgh, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark for a period of six months. The decision comes as Germany faces pressure to take a tougher stance on irregular migration, with the far-right party AfD gaining popularity and winning its first state election earlier this month in Thuringia.
Faeser stated that the controls will enable effective refoulement, with 30,000 people already being turned away since partial border controls were implemented in 2023. The move is seen as a necessary step until strong protection of the EU’s external borders can be achieved with the new Common European Asylum System. While the Schengen area allows for free travel between member countries, internal border controls can be reintroduced if there is a threat to public policy or internal security.
The announcement of the extended border controls comes ahead of talks between the government coalition and the main opposition on Germany’s migration policy. The leader of the opposition, Friedrich Merz, has demanded clarity on the government’s intentions and stressed the need for comprehensive refoulement at Germany’s external borders. The issue of migration has been a key point of political tension in Germany, with the government under pressure to address the surge of refugees arriving in recent years.
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