The stationary controls at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland will be extended by a further 20 days on Wednesday. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) informed the EU Commission of this on Tuesday. According to her ministry, the federal police have apprehended around 90 people smugglers at these borders since October 16.
"Our bundle of stationary and mobile border police measures is important to curb irregular migration to Germany," said Faeser. Close contact with neighboring countries and the affected federal states is continuing so that all measures on both sides of the border work together in the best possible way. Faeser emphasized: "At the same time, we continue to attach particular importance to ensuring that the controls have as little impact as possible on the everyday lives of commuters, on trade and on travel."
On October 16, the Federal Minister of the Interior initially announced fixed border controls at these sections for ten days and then extended them once by 20 days. She justified this step with the fight against irregular immigration and people smuggling. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, around 6,900 unauthorized entries have been detected by the federal police at these three land borders alone since the start of the controls and "around 2,800 measures have been taken to prevent unauthorized entries and end unauthorized stays".
Faeser said that she wanted to return to internal borders as quickly as possible, where no controls were necessary. The reform of the Common European Asylum System with comprehensive protection of the EU's external borders was "the key step" to achieving this. The German government is working intensively to finalize EU legislation on this.
Temporary stationary controls have been in place at the land border between Germany and Austria since autumn 2015 and have been repeatedly extended since then.
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