Enlarge image
Federal police officers next to a group of migrants who have come across the German-Polish border
Photo: Danilo Dittrich / dpa
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) wants to deepen German-Polish cooperation to secure the mutual border.
More joint patrols are planned on the German-Polish border on Polish territory, said Seehofer in Berlin.
This was intended to identify cross-border commuters at the green border, but also to uncover crimes related to migration, such as smugglers arrested.
Closing the border is not an option, said the Federal Minister of the Interior.
Other steps are also planned to prevent increased migration via Belarus to the EU.
Further sanctions against Minsk are being considered.
In addition, Germany will hold talks with the countries from which the airline brings migrants to Minsk.
In the case of Iraq, this has so far been successful, said Seehofer.
From there, no more migrants would be flown to Belarus in the next few weeks.
The problem can only be solved together in the EU.
The key to the solution is probably in Moscow, said Seehofer.
Seehofer: Migrants are used as a political weapon
Seehofer added: "State-organized or at least state-supported smuggling activities" are taking place in Belarus.
The country recently added to the list of countries from which one can enter without a visa - and has now also added Iran, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt and Jordan.
The regime’s approach in Belarus is a form of “hybrid threat” by using migrants as a political weapon, said the Federal Minister of the Interior.
Seehofer has already proposed joint patrols on the German-Polish border to his Polish counterpart Mariusz Kaminski.
For this, the number of officers of the federal police could be increased significantly.
Poland has declared a state of emergency
The EU accuses Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of organizing migrants and refugees from crisis regions to the EU's external border in order to retaliate against European sanctions against human rights violations.
Lukashenko announced at the end of May that Minsk would no longer prevent people from continuing to travel to the EU.
The EU is considering adding the Belarusian state airline Belavia to its sanctions list because of Lukashenko's actions.
Your browser does not support this video, but you can download it here: https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/polnic-bound-zu-belarus-gefluechtete- Werden-mit-aller-haerte-zurueckzüge-a-ba8e043e -b43d-4f4a-8601-da99d79b5870
Due to the increasing number of migrants, Warsaw has stationed thousands of soldiers at the border, erected a barbed wire fence and imposed a state of emergency banning journalists and aid organizations from accessing the border.
The Polish parliament also voted for the legalization of so-called pushbacks.
The number of migrants via Belarus route has risen sharply
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, more than 5,000 illegal entries have been found in eastern Germany since August.
Many people from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran are among those seeking protection.
According to Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen, more than 100 refugees are currently coming to Germany from Poland every day.
The numbers have risen sharply recently.
By the end of July, only 26 people came to Germany illegally via Belarus and Poland.
In August there were already 474, in September, according to the latest information from the Federal Police, 1903. By October 17, another 3,000 unauthorized persons had entered the German-Polish border, most of them probably also via the Belarus route.
The aid organization Pro Asyl has criticized the situation of the refugees on the Polish-Belarusian border.
"At the external border of the EU in Poland, the refugee convention is de facto suspended," said pro-asylum Europe boss Karl Kopp of the Düsseldorf "Rheinische Post".
He urged the EU to respect human rights.
"Dictators win when constitutional states themselves break the refugee convention."
Seehofer: Problems at other borders too
Seehofer sees problems with migrants in other areas as well.
There are more and more »secondary migration« - that is, asylum seekers who have already found protection in another EU country or have applied for asylum and entered Germany anyway.
In this context, Seehofer criticized Italy and Greece, which hardly took back any migrants who had arrived there and later traveled on to Germany.
Between the beginning of the year and the end of September, around 80,000 people had applied for asylum in Germany.
anr / Reuters / AFP