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Border controls? Seehofer plans quick steps - Merkel's spokesman makes clarification

2021-10-18T13:04:08.803Z


The German-Polish border is used for illegal crossings. The cause lies in Belarus. Border controls are also being discussed as a countermeasure.


The German-Polish border is used for illegal crossings.

The cause lies in Belarus.

Border controls are also being discussed as a countermeasure.

Frankfurt (Oder) - Border controls could soon be carried out again at the German-Polish border.

(Still) Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) is busy with the appropriate steps.

The CSU politician wants to bring the issue to the cabinet on Wednesday (October 20).

The federal police union had previously called for border controls.

Border controls: "Further measures to prevent illegal migration are currently being coordinated"

The chairman of the Federal Police Union, Heiko Teggatz, would like at least temporary controls.

He justified this in a letter to Seehofer with an "explosive" increase in the number of apprehensions and the health risk for employees of the Federal Police, as reported by the

Bild newspaper

.

"For several months, the number of apprehensions has increased almost explosively," the newspaper quoted from the letter from the Federal Police Union.

Only with the introduction of temporary border controls could the federal government prevent a "collapse" at the borders like in 2015. 

The federal government has the topic on the agenda, said government spokesman Steffen Seibert on Monday.

It is a “situation that we are closely monitoring”, and “options for action” will be presented in the cabinet.

Seibert referred, among other things, to an "increased veil search".

"Further measures to prevent illegal migration are currently being coordinated," said a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior *.

She didn't want to give details.

According to her, around 4,500 people have crossed the Polish-German border without an entry permit since August.

+

Border controls on the Oder-Neisse border with the Republic of Poland.

Will they be reintroduced soon?

(Archive photo)

© Erik-Holm Langhof / Imago

Andreas Roßkopf, Chairman of the Federal Police District of the Police Union (GdP), sees “currently no reason for border controls”.

He told the dpa and added: "Yes, we have to react, but we prefer to intensify the border search."

German-Polish border: almost 500 illegally entered people on the weekend

At the weekend, federal police took almost 500 illegally entered or smuggled migrants into custody.

Most of them were found in Brandenburg.

As the Berlin Federal Police announced on Monday, 288 people were picked up there.

Most of them were people from Syria, Yemen, Iraq or Iran.

In Saxony, the federal police took a total of 135 people into custody at the weekend, as the federal police in Pirna announced.

The refugees came to Poland * via Belarus without a visa or were smuggled into Germany.

They were handed over to the immigration authorities.

At the German-Polish border in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the federal police initially reported a quiet weekend with a view to illegal migration.

In the evening and night hours of Sunday, however, there were "increased unauthorized entries", with 54 people being taken into custody.

They were therefore mostly people from Iraq and Iran.

Border controls: Brandenburg's CDU interior minister skeptical

Brandenburg Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) is meanwhile skeptical about possible border controls. "Whether the capacities of the federal police are sufficient to control several hundred kilometers of the border with Poland and whether the effort is worthwhile can only be decided by the federal government," said Stübgen on Monday of the German press agency. “I have my doubts that temporary border controls will solve the problem and warn of an escalation spiral on the German-Polish border. Border controls or even border closings would put an enormous strain on daily life for tens of thousands of Germans and Poles in the border region. "

Meanwhile, Seibert made it clear that the basic attitude of the federal government, which has not yet provided for border closings in the European Schengen area, has not changed.

He also pointed out that the situation on the Polish-German border “in no way” can be compared with the situation during the 2015 refugee crisis.

Heiko Maas: "Lukashenko is the head of a state smuggling ring"

The cause of the refugees is in Minsk, the solution in Moscow, argued Stübgen. The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko announced at the end of May in response to tightened Western sanctions against his country that Minsk would no longer prevent migrants from continuing to travel to the EU. Since then, reports of attempted irregular border crossings at the EU's external borders with Belarus and at the German-Polish border * have increased.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office * also blamed the government in Belarus for the situation.

The “difficult situation” was “deliberately brought about by the rulers in Minsk,” she said.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) also attacked Lukashenko.

"We are confronted in Europe with the fact that Lukashenko uses refugees as an instrument to put pressure on European states," he said.

He is "nothing more than the head of a state smuggling ring".

 (as / dpa / AFP) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-10-18

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