Germany starts from this Monday at control all your land borders reduce irregular migration, despite the rejection of its neighboring countries and amid accusations that the measure would hit a hard blow for the European Schengen area of free movement.
These checks, which according to the German government will be “flexible and based on security requirements”, will be carried out at the borders of the central European country with France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark during the next six monthsand will be added to those already existing in the border areas with Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.
The Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended the controls on Saturday at an event in the far-right state of Brandenburg AfD is leading the polls ahead of regional elections next Sunday. “Irregular migration is not what we want”said the Social Democratic leader, who stressed that “it was not good” that of the 300,000 people who arrived in Germany last year, only a portion were entitled to protection.
“Unfortunately, we can’t trust completely in the sense that everyone our neighbors are doing things as they should“, he said. The move comes at a time when Scholz’s coalition is under pressure from rise of the far right in the east of the country and a Christian-Democratic opposition which insists on the general rejection of asylum seekers at the borders, which the government considers contrary to European law.
With these controls, Germany wants to “further reduce irregular migration“We continue to act in close coordination with our neighbouring countries. “We also want to ensure that controls have the least possible impact on people living in border regions, travellers, trade and the economy,” he said.
Germany says internal border controls with Poland, Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerlandeffective from October 2023, They are proving their effectiveness, since they have allowed more than 30,000 people who tried to enter the country illegally to be turned back. Faeser assures that there are also a fifth fewer asylum applications and a fifth more returns.
Berlin, however, maintains that the overall burden borne by Germany must be taken into account, including the limited capacity of municipalities in terms of accommodation, as well as in the areas of education and integration due to the admission of 1.2 million refugees. Ukraineand migration to asylum in recent years.
Comments from other countries
Germany is thus trying to justify its action after criticism from some neighbouring countries, but also from EU states such as Greece. Scholz called the Polish Prime Minister on Friday: Donald Tuskto ensure that the measure is in line with the European legal order. The Polish liberal politician described “unacceptable“Berlin’s announcement and announced urgent consultations with other affected countries of the European Union.
The government of Austriafor his part, announced that he would not accept people turned back at the German border. “There is no room for maneuver,” said Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. Other European countries have also spoken out on the measure, and the Prime Minister of GreeceConservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed that the immigration issue cannot be resolved with the “unilateral abolition” of the Schengen agreement.
In Hungarythe prime minister Viktor Orbanknown for his ultranationalist and anti-immigration positions, applauded the German decision, but Interior Minister Gergely Gulyás claimed that Germany had destroyed the Schengen zone, first in 2015, when it allowed the mass entry of refugees, and now with the new border controls.
For his part, the European Commission For now, he has only recalled that the Schengen Borders Code allows member states to introduce border controls in threatening situations, provided that this is considered “necessary and proportionate”.
