Migration: Saxony wants balance between border security and help for people in need

In view of the migratory pressure on Europe, Saxony's Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) sees the need for "a balance between the toughness of securing the EU's borders and the urgent need to help people in need." Europe must help and "will certainly do so in the future," he said Monday of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's visit to Lampedusa in the Mediterranean. "But the decision, who comes into the EU, must not have criminal smugglers," this would have to make the EU states.

During the visit to the Italian island on Sunday, von der Leyen had announced that, in view of the many crossings of migrants, the monitoring of the EU's external border in the Mediterranean by air and by sea would be strengthened. On Lampedusa thousands of boat migrants had arrived in the days before, the first reception camp is overcrowded.

Because of sharply increasing illegal entries, Saxony has increased the search pressure on smugglers who bring people under life-threatening circumstances in vehicles across the borders of the Czech Republic and Poland. At the same time, counties, cities and municipalities are stretched to the limit when it comes to accommodating refugees. Also in view of this, Kretschmer said the Free State is ready to "participate in a compromise to reduce migration numbers in the course of a German pact." "Germany needs an asylum peace."