BERLIN (AFP) – Germany said yesterday it would step up policing of its borders with Poland and the Czech Republic, in a bid to get a grip on rising levels of illegal migration.
Federal police would “carry out additional flexible, targeted controls on the (people) smuggling routes” along its eastern border, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.
The surge in arrivals has reignited the immigration debate in Germany, put pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government and caused tensions with European neighbours facing their own influx. The new controls would be implemented “this week” to reinforce forces already patrolling the border area, Faeser said.
“My goal is to put maximum pressure on smugglers and to protect people,” she said.
Germany has already increased the number of police carrying out search operations in the border area in recent months, as numbers began to rise. Between January and August this year, federal police detected 70,753 irregular entries into Germany, a nearly 60-per cent increase on the same period last year.
The number of requests for asylum also rose by around 77 per cent, with over 204,000 applications made, according to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.
