Germany announces temporary border checks at all land borders

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says Germany will set up temporary controls at all of its land borders in an attempt to curb irregular migration, expanding checks it already has in place at some borders.

Germany has announced plans for tighter border controls at all nine of the country’s land borders in an effort to tackle “irregular migration” and protect the public from what it calls Islamic extremism and other threats.
“We want to further reduce irregular migration. To this end, we are now taking further steps that go beyond the comprehensive measures currently in place,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at a news conference on Monday.
“Until we achieve strong protection of the EU’s external borders with the new Common European Asylum System, we need to strengthen controls at our national borders. These controls will also enable effective refoulement,” she added, noting that the European Commission and affected countries have been notified.
Temporary border controls will be set up at the land borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark for a period of six months.
It follows after Berlin last year announced similar stricter controls on its borders with Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. The Austria checks are currently in place until November, while the Switzerland, Poland and the Czech Republic measures are in force until December 2024.
Germany said that the temporary border control measures with those four countries will be continued and their scheduling coordinated with the other five.
Europe’s Schengen area allows for free travel between member countries, but member states are allowed to introduce border checks if they feel there is a threat to public policy or internal security.
Faeser said that the government has also drawn up a framework to allow authorities to turn away more migrants directly at the border, but did not give any details about how it would work.
She said that 30,000 people were turned away since Germany implemented partial border controls in 2023. She adds that this number will increase now that the border controls are extended to the remaining borders.
The move has been met with anger across Germany’s borders, with Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, telling domestic news outlets on Monday that his country would not take in any migrants rejected by Germany.
“There’s no room for manoeuvre there,” he said.
In Luxembourg, the government has said that federal police will limit any negative effects on cross-border traffic and life “as far as possible”, according to local media, adding that “unnecessary disruption to cross-border traffic must be avoided”.
The order comes as the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces pressure to take a tougher stance on irregular migration, with Germany facing a surge of refugees arriving in recent years.
Deadly knife attacks allegedly committed by suspected asylum seekers have also sparked significant concerns over immigration. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the city of Solingen in August, killing three.
The issue of migration has been a key political talking point. Germany’s far-right party AfD, which carries a clear anti-immigration message, gained popularity and won its first state election earlier this month in the eastern state of Thuringia.
The announcement on border controls comes a day before the government coalition and the main opposition are set to discuss Germany’s migration policy. It is still unclear whether the CDU/CSU opposition group will take part in the talks.
The leader of the group, Friedrich Merz, has asked the government to clearly state its intention before the new round of talks takes place.
“The Federal Minister of the Interior, the Federal Government, has correctly notified Brussels of border controls at all of Germany`s external borders,” he said. “That is correct. But it is not yet clear whether this means that there will be comprehensive and not limited refoulement.”
Merz added that they will not accept any relativisation or a limited method of rejection. “If the Federal Government wants us to go down this path together, then it will only work if we really do carry out comprehensive refoulement at Germany’s external borders.”