More refugees are entering Germany illegally via the Belarus route. A CSU politician is now calling for the introduction of stationary border controls.
Berlin - Unauthorized entries from Belarus to Germany are apparently on the rise again. Almost 8,700 people with a connection to Belarus are said to have entered Germany illegally via Poland between July 2022 and March 2023, according to the newspaper Welt. CSU parliamentary group deputy Andrea Lindholz is now calling for stationary controls at the border between Germany and Poland.
"Apparently, about half of the people who enter illegally across the german-Polish border every month enter the EU via Belarus," Lindholz told Die Welt. "It stands to reason that these illegal entries are part of a strategy to destabilise the EU." Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is considered a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Poland also accuses Belarus of deliberately organizing the illegal entry of migrants into Polish territory.
In January 2022, there was still a "significant downward trend" of illegal entries from Belarus
According to the Federal Police, more than 2021,11 people had already entered Germany illegally from Belarus via Poland in 000. At the time, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch had reported serious human rights violations on both the Belarusian and Polish sides of the border.
After the tightening of border controls in Poland, the number of border crossings initially decreased. At the beginning of 2022, the German Federal Police also spoke of a "significant downward trend" in unauthorized entries from Belarus via Poland. 346 such border crossings were recorded in January 2022. By comparison, between July 2022 and March 2023, an average of almost three times as many unauthorized entries per month were recorded. According to reports from Die Welt, most of the refugees from this period come from Syria, Afghanistan and Egypt.
Visit to Poland: Faeser discusses the issue of border controls with his Polish counterpart
According to Lindholz's demand, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) must now develop concrete measures with Poland to significantly reduce illegal immigration to Germany. On Tuesday, Faeser will visit the Joint Centre of the german-Polish Police in Swiecko, Poland, near Frankfurt (Oder). At the meeting with her Polish counterpart Mariusz Kaminiski, measures against smugglers and the issue of stationary border controls will also be discussed.
Faeser currently rejects such permanent controls because of the consequences for the economy and commuters. The introduction of such measures at the border could only be a last resort. Veil searches, i.e. identity checks independent of suspicion and occasion, have already been intensified at the borders. (with dpa/AFP)
