The Federal Police is apparently preparing for an increase in illegal migration to Germany. According to SPIEGEL information, in a letter from the beginning of October, the Federal Police Headquarters in Potsdam instructed the directorates to "intensify the border police measures from now until further notice". The aim is to better capture unauthorized migration and cross-border crime and to identify "hitherto unknown modes of operandi and offender structures" of smugglers.
The background should also be the big difference between the number of unauthorized entries found and the number of asylum applications in Germany. Between January and August 2019, almost 100,000 initial applications for asylum were filed in Germany, while in the same period the Federal Police registered 26,490 unauthorized entries. The strengthening of border police measures concerns in particular the borders with Switzerland and the Netherlands, but also other sections such as the border area with the Czech Republic.
One focus is on the growing number of long-distance buses that travel across Europe. Air traffic coming from Greece is also to be increasingly monitored because many migrants have attempted to enter Germany with false papers by plane. The measures include random checks at the borders as well as the search with mobile units up to 30 kilometers inland, on which the Federal Police can carry out checks.
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) would like to expand this space. The regional priorities should be defined by the directorates under their own responsibility; The Bureau has given them support in the event of bottlenecks. The controls on the border with Austria were recently extended.
This topic comes from the new SPIEGEL magazine - available at the kiosk from Saturday morning and every Friday at SPIEGEL + and in the digital magazine edition.
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