Germany enacted strict new land border controls Monday in what has been described as a response to irregular migration and growing extremist threats.
“We are strengthening our internal security through concrete action and we are continuing our tough stance against irregular migration,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at a news conference.
AP reports the ministry said it notified the European Union of the order to set up border controls at the land borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark for a period of six months.
They will begin next week on Sept. 16 and comes after a deadly knife attack in Soligen last month killed three people. The perpetrator was a Syrian asylum-seeker who claimed to be inspired by the Islamic State group.
Even more recently, police in Munich exchanged fire with a gunman near the Israeli Consulate last week, fatally wounding him. Authorities said they believe he was planning to attack the consulate on the 52nd anniversary of the attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The latest restrictions enhance those already in place on the land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland.
Dutch politician Geert Wilders praised Germany’s move and said the Netherlands should do the same.
“Until we achieve strong protection of the EU’s external borders with the new Common European Asylum System, we must increase controls at our national borders even more,” Faeser said.
She noted Germany already has had more than 30,000 rejections of people seeking to cross its borders since last October, with the rush to enter going all the way back to 2015 when then Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the country to all and sundry migrant arrivals.
Now controls are being needed to stop the process being abused.
“This served to further limit irregular migration and to protect against the acute dangers posed by Islamist terrorism and serious crime. We are doing everything we can to better protect people in our country against this,” Faeser said.
The order comes as coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing pressure to take a tougher stance on irregular migration.