Extension of German Controls to Poland and Czech Republic
Published: Wednesday, Oct 25th 2023, 15:00
Volver a Live Feed
The German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) announced on Wednesday that the stationary border controls at the German borders to Poland, Czech Republic and Switzerland will be extended for an additional 20 days. This follows the 10-day stationary border control that was requested to the EU Commission on October 16th to combat irregular immigration and smuggling. After the expiration of this period, the controls will be extended for another 20 days. After that, the decision will be made depending on the situation. Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen accused Faeser of "half-heartedness" for only extending the controls in small steps and wanting to lift the measure again in December. He called for the possibility to carry out border controls as long as the European measures to limit migration do not work. At the border to Austria, stationary controls were already introduced in 2015 due to the large number of refugees. At the other borders in the east and south of the country, Faeser had long resisted stationary controls and instead relied on spot checks.
In the first 10 months of the year, the Federal Police counted around 98,000 unauthorized entries into Germany. This is already more than the total number of people who entered Germany without permission in the entire previous year (91,986). In light of this, CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann called for asylum applications to be processed directly at the German border crossings. He said that control centers and transit centers are needed to check who has the right to enter and that everyone else must be returned.
©Keystone/SDA
Spanish 
English 
German 
French 
Arabic