Faeser orders border controls at all external borders

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has ordered temporary controls at all German land borders in order to further reduce the number of illegal entries. The additional controls are to begin on September 16 and will initially last for six months, as the Federal Interior Ministry announced on Monday. In addition to limiting irregular migration, the ministry also cited the protection of internal security against current threats from Islamist terrorism and cross-border crime as reasons for the controls now ordered. “We are doing everything we can to protect the people in our country against this,” said Faeser.

Following the migration meeting with the Union faction and state representatives last week, the government has now also developed a “model for effective rejections that comply with European law,” the ministry said. This model goes beyond the rejections that are currently taking place. Faeser said she had informed the Union faction of this and offered confidential discussions on the matter. Such a discussion with the CDU/CSU faction and the chair of the Conference of Minister Presidents is planned for this Tuesday.

Rejections at German land borders currently only occur in certain cases: if someone is banned from entering the country or does not apply for asylum. Rejections at Germany’s internal borders are generally only possible where there are controls directly at the border.

Border controls since October 2023

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, more than 30,000 people have been turned back since October. In mid-October 2023, Federal Minister of the Interior Faeser ordered stationary controls at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Such controls, which are justified by irregular migration, have been in place at the German-Austrian land border since September 2015. The newly ordered controls directly at the border affect the land borders with France, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Faeser initially left open what the federal government’s new proposal for rejections would look like. She wanted to present it to the Union first, said the Interior Minister. She had spoken to the parliamentary manager of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei (CDU), on the phone about this. In the past, there had been various ideas from the political sphere, such as that this should be extended to all foreigners without identity papers or to asylum seekers who have already been registered as asylum seekers in a country.

Austria reacts to rejections

However, Austria does not want to “accept any people who are rejected from Germany,” as conservative Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said in the “Bild” and the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.” “There is no room for maneuver.”

Karner argues that Germany does have the right to send people back if another EU country is responsible for their asylum application. However, this requires a formal procedure and the consent of the member state concerned. Rejections as part of controls at the EU’s internal borders are not permitted, says Karner three weeks before the Austrian parliamentary elections.

Note: This article has been updated several times.