After choice of chancellor: Dobrindt wants to arrange tightened border controls immediately

The future Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt wants to order increased rejections from migrants and increased controls at the German external borders a day after his planned taking office. “The first decisions will be made on Wednesday after taking office. The border controls will be raised and the rejections are increased,” said the CSU politician of “Bild am Sonntag”. There will be no border closures.

“The figures in illegal migration have to go down. In order for humanity and order to succeed equally, control, clarity and consistency is needed. We are preparing national and European decisions,” said Dobrindt.

More staff and new instructions?

Observers expect that at least temporarily more federal police officers will be sent to the border. However, what else will change is still unclear. In any case, the police union (GdP) reacts skeptically to Dobrindt’s announcement.

The GdP is also for measures to contain irregular migration, said Andreas Roßkopf, chairman of the GdP district of the federal police and customs. A significant increase in the number of police officers at the border is not permanently not to be held on to the current staff.

No “ping pong game” with the neighbors

The trade unionist also expressed doubts about the announcements of Union politicians to reject asylum seekers at the German land boundaries, without the consent of neighboring countries such as Poland or Austria. “From Wednesday there should be no ping pong game with neighboring countries,” warned Roßkopf. He added: “If we are supposed to reject asylum seekers, it must be legally secure – and so far I have lacked the answer.”

CDU boss Friedrich Merz will be elected Chancellor in the Bundestag on Tuesday. The future Chancellor’s head Thorsten Frei (CDU) recently announced sharper border controls again from the first day of the new government – albeit with a time limit.

“I am very excited to what extent the announcements by the opposition politician Dobrindt will match the actions of the Interior Minister Dobrindt,” said former Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) of the “Rheinische Post”.

Traffic lights extended border controls

In the traffic light coalition, there were hardly any supporters of fixed border controls, which are actually not intended in the so-called Schengen area. Nevertheless, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has not only extended the controls on the land border to Austria in 2015. In mid-October 2023, she also ordered such temporary controls for the borders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland and notified the EU Commission. Last September, she decided that there should also be such controls – which are a prerequisite for rejections – also on the remaining border sections.

Last year, 229,751 people made an asylum application for the first time in Germany. That was around 100,000 asylum applications less than in the previous year. The main countries of origin currently include Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey. According to the head of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Hans-Eckhard Sommer that Serbia actually blocked the refugee route to Hungary in Hungary in November 2023 is a main cause of the decline. It is open whether this will remain the case permanently in a speech at the end of March.

In the coalition agreement, the CDU/CSU and SPD agreed: “In coordination with our European neighbors, we will also make rejections at the common limits even in the event of asylum requests.” Between the Union and the SPD, it is unclear whether “in coordination” means to obtain approval from the neighbors or only to consult them.