Germany extends border controls with Switzerland again
Published: Monday, Nov 13th 2023, 16:10
Updated At: Monday, Nov 13th 2023, 16:13
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Berlin is extending border controls with Switzerland. The decision was made last Monday at a meeting between Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the minister presidents of the federal states, as the German authorities announced at the request of Keystone-SDA.
Berlin wants to use the border controls to combat irregular immigration and people smuggling, as announced on Monday. Berlin had already announced stationary controls at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland for ten days in mid-October and then extended these for 20 days at the end of October. Internal border controls will now be maintained, according to last week's decision.
However, it is not known whether the border controls actually worked. At the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency, the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) wrote: "The Federal Office does not have any statistical evaluations on this."
Switzerland has "expressed its regret about the reintroduction of internal border controls in its contacts with Germany", the Federal Office for Migration (SEM) announced.
Little impact on traffic
However, the controls carried out by Germany to date have had "only a marginal impact" on road traffic, as the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (BAZG) wrote on request.
At the border crossings Basel/Weil am Rhein-Autobahn, Rheinfelden-Autobahn and Kreuzlingen, there were occasional traffic jams and waiting times when leaving for Germany.
However, according to the BAZG, congestion at busy border crossings also existed before the current control regime of the German authorities. "It is not always clear what a traffic jam is due to," it said.
Meeting at the end of November
According to the State Secretariat for Migration, talks are planned with Austria, Germany and France at state secretary level at the end of November to discuss the challenges in the area of secondary migration. "The reintroduction of internal border controls will also be addressed."
©Keystone/SDA
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