Scholz will limit 'irregular migration'
**Federal Chancellor Scholz will continue to strictly control the borders. "The numbers need to go down," he said. He considers border controls to be a sensible measure for limiting irregular migration to Germany.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz considers border controls to be a reasonable measure for limiting irregular migration to Germany. "Generally, it is our intention to continue strictly controlling the German borders," the SPD politician told the "Saarbrücken Zeitung." "I have announced that we want to limit irregular migration. The numbers need to go down."
Although work migration is necessary and desirable, Scholz added, there are too many who come irregularly and claim to be seeking protection but cannot provide grounds for asylum and are then rejected. He also referred to existing controls, such as those at the French border during the Olympics. These controls will last until September 30.
For the land borders with Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and Poland, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser ordered stationary controls in October and reported them to the EU Commission. These controls continue to operate to limit irregular migration and combat smuggling crime. They are currently limited for Switzerland, Czech Republic, and Poland until December 15, and for Austria, where controls have been in place since autumn 2015, until November 11.
AfD calls for "gap-free" border protection
The co-chairwoman of the AfD parliamentary faction, Alice Weidel, is not satisfied with that. She said: "We also need effective and gap-free protection of our borders, the dismantling of incentives for illegal immigration, and a deportation offensive that speaks for itself through numbers, not just announcements."
Skeptical tones come from the Union, which, considering the personnel effort for the Federal Police, also proposes a different strategy. "We will closely monitor what the vague words of the Federal Chancellor on border controls are worth," said the deputy faction leader, Andrea Lindholz.
The Union is convinced that Germany should register controls for all border sections with the EU Commission in the long term. Only then can the Federal Police be active directly at the border and also carry out rejections there. France, for example, has been practicing this for a longer time without the Schengen Area being broken. "That doesn't mean that full-strength control is required around the clock at every border crossing," explained the CSU politician.
In theory, there should be no border controls in the Schengen Area, which includes most EU countries as well as non-EU countries like Switzerland. However, several countries are currently controlling some of their Schengen internal borders due to the tense migration situation.
Over 6,400 rejections within six weeks
During the European Football Championship, controls were in place at all German borders. According to the Federal Police Presidium in Potsdam, a total of 9,172 unauthorized entries were detected during the period from June 7 to July 19. Of these unauthorized entrants, 6,401 people were returned.
The police reportedly took 275 suspected smugglers into custody in addition. In the first half of this year, 121,416 people filed their first asylum application with the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, which is approximately 19 percent less than in the previous yearly period. Refugees from Ukraine are currently being accepted in accordance with the EU mass inflow regulation and do not need to file an asylum application.
Experts estimate that the additional border controls have led to fewer asylum seekers coming to Germany since the fall. Another factor could be border control measures in other countries, such as along the so-called Balkan route. Currently, only people are being turned away who have been issued a re-entry ban or have not expressed an asylum application in the country they are trying to enter Germany from.
The Union sounds different today
The European Union has been debating the rules at the German border since the fall of 2015, when hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers - many from Syria - came to Germany within a short period of time. In February 2016, the then Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "Many tell me in these days that there was also a life before Schengen. And I reply then: I know, there was also a life before German Unity. The borders were better protected then."
The Union sounds different today. Lindholz finds that the current German government should have obtained clarification in the context of the recently passed European asylum law reform that "we can also turn away people who have found acceptance in another EU country or who could have filed an asylum application in the country they want to enter Germany from." The current "overload situation" is a sufficient argument for this. Since the European asylum law has not been followed by some important member states for years, its priority is "very questionable" anyway. Even if the asylum reform shows effectiveness, this would still take at least two years.
Despite the continuous efforts to control German borders, AfD's co-chairwoman, Alice Weidel, advocates for "gap-free" border protection and a strong deportation policy. Meanwhile, the Union proposes registering border controls with the EU Commission for all sections to enable direct rejections at the border, citing France's successful implementation of this strategy.
