Germany to Extend Controls at Polish, Czech, Swiss Borders to Stop Migration
Germany plans to extend controls at its borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland until December 15 to stop the surge in migration and to fight human smuggling. A spokesman for the country's Interior Ministry announced this at a press conference in Berlin on Monday.
According to Reuters, Berlin will notify the European Commission of the extension of the control.
The Ministry believes that stationary police measures on the border with Poland should continue, as since the introduction of control on 16 October, they have already prevented about 1,100 unauthorised entries. During this time, German police have also caught more than 30 people smugglers.
On October 16, Germany announced that it would tighten controls at its land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland due to a sharp increase in asylum applications in 2023. In November, it extended the measures for another 20 days.
According to law enforcement officials, in the first 9 months of 2023, they detected about 98,000 unauthorised entries into Germany. For the whole of 2022, there were about 92,000. The Ministry of Internal Affairs suggests that about one in four third-country nationals who enter the country illegally get to Germany with the help of illegal human smugglers.
According to Deutsche Welle, at the end of November, the German Federal Police recorded that illegal migration to the country had halved after the expansion of stationary border controls. According to the police, fewer than 300 unauthorised entries to Germany are now detected every day. Prior to the expansion of controls on the borders with the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Poland in October, this figure was 700 per day.
The drop was particularly sharp at the border with Poland: from 6,411 to 2,795 cases. In the 30 days prior to 16 October, a total of 18,492 illegal entries into Germany were recorded at the borders with these countries and Austria, and 11,029 after the regime was introduced.
Saxony's Interior Minister Armin Schuster said that the introduction of border controls "exceeded even our expectations".
Earlier, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is seeking to reduce the number of asylum seekers and stop the rise of the far-right, agreed on a tougher migration policy and new funding for refugees with the heads of 16 German states.