Faeser: Stationary border controls as a "possibility

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has shown herself open in principle to short-term stationary border controls at the Polish and Czech borders. "From my point of view, this is a way to fight smuggling of migrants harder," the SPD politician told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper when asked whether there would be short-term stationary border controls at the Polish and Czech borders. Such additional controls would have to mesh well with the surveillance of the entire border area by the Schleierfahndung. "For this purpose, we have already greatly increased the presence of the federal police at the Polish and Czech borders."

Faeser added: "But one should not suggest that no more asylum seekers will come as soon as there are stationary border controls." If a person asks for asylum at the border, then the asylum application must be examined in Germany, he said. Decisive, therefore, remains the protection of the EU's external borders, "which we achieve with the common asylum system."

Faeser had already said on Wednesday during a questioning of the federal government in the Bundestag, "To combat smugglers, it can indeed be right sometimes to make even a short-term stationary border control. That is quite correct."

Yet recently, Faeser had rejected the Union demand for stationary border controls, for example, at the borders to Poland and the Czech Republic several times. They tied up too much personnel and would be "pure symbolic politics, also in view of the high poll values of the AfD," she had said. It would be better to be "present everywhere in the border areas - with teams of the federal police and the other border police."

As a further measure, Faeser mentioned in the "Welt am Sonntag" interview controls already in neighboring countries. With Switzerland, there is "already an excellent cooperation": "Federal police officers are allowed to control in close coordination with Swiss police forces also on Swiss territory and prevent unauthorized entries. There could be something similar with the Czech Republic. The arrangements for this are already underway," she told the newspaper.

On Friday, the Union had introduced a motion in the Bundestag as its own proposal for a Germany pact on migration. According to the model of the border with Austria, stationary border controls should also be introduced at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.