With the right-wing AfD party surging in nationwide polls, the German government has restored border checks with neighbouring countries in a desperate bid to curb illegal immigration.
The move comes after a series of Islamic terror attacks in Germany by Muslim migrants. “Germany’s government announced plans to impose tighter controls at all of the country’s land borders in what it called an attempt to tackle irregular migration and protect the public from threats such as Islamist extremism,” Reuters reported. The news measure will last for six months and can be extended, German news reports suggest.
German police will resume passport controls at border crossings in the coming days. “The checks, which were announced on Monday, will be in force from Monday 16 September,” Euronews TV channel reported. “Germany shares land borders with Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland.”
Germany’s state-run DW TV reports:
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Monday announced an extension of passport controls along all of the country’s land borders.The controls, aimed at curbing the number of people entering Germany without visas, come amid a growing debate about limiting irregular migration.Faeser said the checks were part of a bid to limit irregular migration and address threats from Islamist terror groups and cross-border criminal organizations.”We are doing everything we can to protect the people in our country against this,” said Faeser.”We are strengthening our internal security through concrete action and we are continuing our tough stance against irregular migration,” the minister said.Reports citing government sources said Faeser had already informed the European Commission of the measures.Germany shares more than 3,700 kilometers (more than 2,300 miles) of land borders with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.All are fellow members of the Schengen Zone, within which there are usually no restrictions and checks on travel.The controls start from next Monday and are to initially set to last for six months.
After the Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored a huge win in the recent regional elections in key eastern German states, the establishment parties are scrambling to stop the right-wing party’s popularity on the national level.
In an opinion poll taken over the weekend, the AfD was at 17 percent, 4 points ahead of Germany’s ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD). The AfD, the only political party opposed to open-borders immigration policy, is also leading in most opinion polls ahead of the upcoming vote in the eastern German state of Brandenburg.
Since former Chancellor Angel Merkel opened the country’s borders to migrants in 2015, Germany’s immigrant population has risen to over 18 percent. The country has also seen a surge in migrant crimes, particularly rape and knife attacks.
The knife crimes, often carried out by migrants from North Africa and the Middle East. have rocketed. The data from “states showed that there were a total number of 26,113 knife attacks in Germany in 2023,” German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported recently.
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