Germany wants to establish fixed controls at its border with Poland, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. This was announced by the interior ministry, which has notified the European Union of its plans.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that police would not stop all vehicles or persons crossing the border at all times but that there would be extended checks by federal police.
At Germany’s border with Austria, fixed border checks have been in place since the fall of 2015. Germany’s interior ministry also wants to extend these checks for at least six months.
Usually, German borders are open, and people can travel across freely. That’s because Germany and all of its neighbouring countries are part of the Schengen Area, a visa-free zone that spans across 27 European countries.
But recently, Germany and several other Schengen countries (including France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovakia) have increased patrols at their borders in an attempt to stop irregular migration.
Germany decided to take this stance, observing European countries struggling with a significant migration crisis, with high numbers of asylum seekers not seen since 2014.
Germany, Denmark, and Hungary have adopted stricter policies, while the Green Party’s stance on open borders is losing popularity.
This issue has become more important to Germans than environmental concerns, with local communities struggling to house new arrivals.
If the EU can’t control the situation, member states might compete to make conditions worse for asylum seekers, potentially leading to the return of internal border controls. This crisis is reshaping European politics and challenging the left’s stance on migration.
