From Reuters:
“Germany tightens controls at all borders in immigration crackdown”
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. The controls will
start on Sept. 16 and initially last for six months, the interior ministry said
in a statement on Monday. They are part of a series of measures Germany has
taken to toughen its stance on irregular migration in recent years following a
surge in arrivals, in particular people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle
East.
Chancellor
Olaf Scholz's government is seeking to seize back the initiative from the
opposition far-right and conservatives, who have seen support rise as they tap
into voter worries about stretched public services, integration and security. "We
are strengthening internal security and continuing our hard line against
irregular migration," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said. Recent deadly
knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers have stoked concerns
over immigration. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a knife
attack in the western city of Solingen that killed three people in August. The
AfD earlier this month became the first far-right party since World War Two to
win a state election, in Thuringia, after campaigning heavily on the issue of
migration. Polls show it is also voters' top concern in the state of
Brandenburg, which is set to hold elections in two weeks. Scholz and Faeser's
centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are fighting to retain control of the
government there, in a vote billed as a test of strength of the SPD ahead of
next year's federal election. "The intention of the government seems to be
to show symbolically to Germans and potential migrants that the latter are no
longer wanted here," said Marcus Engler at the German Centre for
Integration and Migration Research.
A TEST FOR EUROPE A backlash had
been building in Germany ever since it took in more than a million people
mostly fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria during the 2015/2016 migrant
crisis, migration experts say. It reached a tipping point in the country
of 84 million people after it automatically granted asylum to around a million
Ukrainians fleeing Russia's 2022 invasion even as Germany was struggling
through an energy and economic crisis.
The
German government last year already announced stricter controls on its land
borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Those and controls on
the border with Austria had allowed it to return 30,000 migrants since October
2023, it said on Monday. Berlin has also agreed tighter deportation rules and
resumed flying convicted criminals of Afghan nationality to their home country,
despite suspending deportations after the Taliban took power in 2021 due to
human rights concerns. The controls could test European unity if they lead to
German authorities requesting other countries to take back substantial numbers
of asylum seekers and migrants. Under EU rules countries in the Schengen area,
which encompasses all of the bloc bar Cyprus and Ireland, are only allowed to
introduce border checks as a last resort to avert threats to internal security
or public policy.
Germany
shares its more than 3,700-km-long (2,300 miles) land border with Denmark, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech
Republic and Poland. Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Bild
newspaper on Monday that his country would not take in any migrants turned away
by Germany at the border. "There's no room for manoeuvre there," he
said. The measures may not immediately result in many more migrants being
turned away at the border, but they could result in more returns to other
European countries down the line, as well as acting as a deterrent, said Susan
Fratzke at the Migration Policy Institute. The number of asylum applications in
Germany already fell 21.7% in the first eight months of the year, according to
government statistics.
^ Germany
is going to start (September 16th) doing Immigration and Customs Checks at its
Airports, Seaports and Land Borders with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium,
Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland.
Germany
is a part of the European Union and also a part of the Schengen Area and the 2
pillars of both the EU and Schengen is freedom of movement between EU Members
and between Schengen Members.
Note:
Not every EU Member Country is a Member of Schengen (Ireland andCyprus) and not
every Schengen Member Country is an EU Member (Iceland, Liectenstein, Norway
and Switzerland.)
Andorra,
Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican are not members of either the EU or
Schengen, but have open borders with them.
There
are 29 Schengen Member Countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the
Czech Republic, Denmark (not including Greenland or the Faroe Islands),
Estonia, Finland, France (not including Overseas Territories), Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta,
the Netherlands (not including the Caribbean Netherlands), Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.)
Germany
is not the only EU or Schengen Member that has imposed Immigration and Customs
Checks at its Borders with another EU or Schengen Member Country.
There
are even EU or Schengen Member Countries that have Border Barriers with other
EU or Schengen Member Countries:
Austria
has a Border Barrier with Slovenia and Italy (since 2015.)
Denmark
has a Border Fence with Germany (since 2019.)
Hungary
has a Border Wall with Croatia (since 2015.)
Slovenia
has a Border Wall with Croatia (since 2016.)
Having
Border Controls or Walls between one EU Member Country with another EU Member
Country ot between One Schengen Member Country with another Schengen Member
Country is the same as having Border Controls or Walls between 1 US State with
another US State (like between New Hampshire and Massachusetts.) ^
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