German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser will announce temporary border controls at all of Germany’s land borders in order to tackle irregular migration and protect the public from Islamist extremism, a government source told Reuters on Monday.
By Andreas Rinke and Alexander Ratz
BERLIN – German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser will announce temporary border controls at all of Germany’s land borders in order to tackle irregular migration and protect the public from Islamist extremism, a government source told Reuters on Monday.
Faeser, who is scheduled to hold a press conference on a package of security measures on Monday, will notify the European Commission of the plans, the source said.
The controls would start on September 16 and initially last six months, the DPA news agency reported, citing government sources.
The German government has been consulting with the main opposition CDU party on ways to curb migration in the face of public concern and following a deadly knife attack by a Syrian asylum seeker last month in the city of Solingen.
Last week, the anti-immigration AfD party won state elections in Thuringia and came second in Saxony.
Faeser’s Social Democrats face a state election in Brandenburg in two weeks, where the party governs in coalition with the Greens and Christian Democrats.
Germany shares its more than 3,700km-long land border with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.
Austria’s Foreign Minister Gerhard Karner told Bild newspaper on Monday that his country would not take in any migrants turned away by Germany at the border.
“There’s no room for manoeuvre there,” he said.
“It’s the law. I have directed the Head of the federal police to not allow any returns,” he added.
Germany last year announced stricter controls on its land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland in response to a sharp increase in first-time asylum requests.
– REUTERS
