Migration policy: increased border controls are on – criticism of neighbors

According to the instructions of the new Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), more stricter controls on the German borders are increasing in the first federal states. In Bavaria, for example, the federal police are now checking the borders to Austria and the Czech Republic more. According to a spokesman for travelers, this will be perceptible. According to the federal police, there are also additional civil servants on the Saxon, Lower Saxon and North Rhine-Westphalian external borders. In Rhineland-Palatinate and in Saarland, the controls will soon start. There was criticism of the opposition and abroad.

The Presidium of the Federal Police said that “measures for temporary strength intensification” were steadily checked and implemented. One will not comment on concrete deployment strengths.

Dobrindt had announced that he had a stricter check. A few hours after taking office, he announced that asylum seekers should also be rejected at the border in the future. However, this should not apply to pregnant women, children and other relatives of vulnerable groups.

Greens boss: Officials are then missing from the main crime

Green boss Franziska Brantner criticized a lack of cooperation with neighboring countries. “In times when we need more Europe, we are reminiscent of which warlike states we come from in Europe and luckily we have peace, it is not acceptable, not particularly good if you do not act with the partners,” she said in the RTL/NTV “early start”. She also complained that the officials were deducted elsewhere. “These are the main train stations, that is the airport, that are main crime in this country. The lack of there. So there is less security in other places for a signal at the border.”

The Green politician Irene Mihalic does not consider the measures to be legally compliant. “Flat-rate rejections of asylum seekers at the limits are simply contrary to European law and fundamentally question cooperation with our neighboring countries,” said the first parliamentary managing director of the Greens faction in the Bundestag to the Editorial Network Germany.

Switzerland: Systematic rejections violate law

Criticism also came from Poland and Switzerland. “From the perspective of Switzerland, systematic rejections at the border violate applicable law,” the Swiss Ministry of Justice then wrote on the platform X. The Swiss authorities “check if necessary”. The Ministry of the Interior in Vienna also insisted on compliance with the applicable EU law. In general, however, Austria greets Germany’s efforts in the fight against the tractor mafia and illegal migration, it said.

Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk had sharply criticized the migration policy of the new federal government when Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). “Germany will let it go to its area. Whoever it wants. Poland will only let his area be in his area,” said Tusk on Wednesday in Warsaw. Neither the impression should arise nor the facts that someone, including Germany, send certain groups of migrants to Poland.

The legal situation for rejections at the border is currently not clear. Some experts read applicable EU law in such a way that rejections are generally not allowed. This is also due to the fact that border controls are practically not exactly on the border line, but often something behind it.

The German Police Union (DPolG) sees clarity here. Germany has contractually regulated so-called return agreements with all residents states, said the deputy chairman Heiko Teggatz of the “Welt”. The content of these contracts is also when a person is considered to be entered. “This is only the case when the entry control is completed. On which territory the control point is located does not matter.”

The AfD does not go far enough

The domestic spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Alexander Throm, defended the measures. The controls would be gradually raised, no neighboring state would be overwhelmed, he said in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”. The voting talks with neighboring countries are “running,” said Throm. “It is a first step in the turn of the migration, an important step, but certainly not the sole we will tackle now.”

CSU boss Markus Söder described the new rules as the beginning of an “asylum turn”. “The asylum seeker has been initiated in Germany since yesterday. Now the old condition applies again, as before 2015,” said Bavaria’s prime minister in a video divided into X.

The measures do not go far enough for the AfD. With reference to the statements on coordination with the neighboring countries, the first parliamentary managing director of the AfD faction, Bernd Baumann said: “Merz has expressly not implemented what he had promised in the election campaign.” At the time, the CDU boss announced that “without exception, all attempts from the illegal entry”. Baumann said world TV that the stronger controls would lead to more rejections. However, he assumes that the rejected finally made it to Germany at other border crossings.