German police organisations have termed the freshly instated policy regarding random inspections at the country’s nine national frontiers as being “infeasible”. These checks launched recently are aimed at curbing unregulated migration and coincide with the third state election of the month, which is expected to result in another victory for the far-right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Previously existing inspections at the borders with Poland, Czech Republic, and Switzerland which are regularly reinstated as brief interventions by Berlin have recently been expanded to cover frontiers with Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
Germany, with the most national borders within the European Union, has presented the most substantial challenge to the Schengen free travel arrangement, which was first introduced in 1995, through these new checks. The German police have categorised these new border controls as being infeasible to administer.
The Federal Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser has attributed her choice to temporarily suspend the open-border measures of the Schengen region to the influx of unregulated arrivals posing a threat to security due to “Islamist extremism”, and disrupting the “solidarity efforts of communities” necessitated for their accommodation and upkeep. She reiterated on Monday that the measures were provisional and assured that there would be a minimum inconvenience and delay for those commuting across the border.
The Federal police who will be responsible for most of the inspections have vowed to adapt their actions based on the circumstances on the ground. Ms Faeser declared these to not be isolationist actions at the national level that would dismantle Europe and assured that these were taken in unison with the country’s neighbouring nations.
However, several of Germany’s neighbours have differed on this, claiming that they were informed of the plans only the previous week through the media.
Last weekend, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz responded to the criticism at an election gathering in Brandenburg. He commented on Sunday that Germany was behaving in this manner due to an unfortunate lack of dependability on all the neighbours to do their fair share. He also stated this was a reality. His administration’s recent change in stance on migration followed a spate of violent incidents, including a stabbing last month that resulted in the death of three individuals. The main suspect, a Syrian national, originally applied for asylum in Bulgaria and later in Germany, from where he wasn’t deported despite his application being turned down.
Authorities in Berlin have stated that the aim of the new check procedure is to stop “refugee arbitrage”, which is a violation of the so-called Dublin guidelines, until a comprehensive European Union refugee system is established in June 2026.
However, German law enforcement organisations have cautioned that their constituents aren’t designed to function as a temporary fix for asylum seekers, or a political palliative ahead of electoral proceedings. Andreas Rosskopf, who leads the border division of the police union, mentioned, “We have already reached our capacity, in relation to both manpower and resources.” He stated that numerous members had expressed doubts when they reported for their premier border patrol shifts at midnight on Monday.
Rosskopf further highlighted that Germany’s western border spans 1,400km and that “occasional checks will hardly discourage a highly structured smuggling operation that can react in a matter of hours.”