Germany announced a string of proposals Wednesday to enforce its hardened stance on immigration and reduce the number of asylum seekers trying to enter the country and stem terrorist threats along with cross-border crime.
Berlin says it must tackle irregular migration due to overburdened public services and to protect the public from threats such as Islamist extremism.
The move comes as a day after it was announced Germany would start carrying out strict controls on all its land borders to turn away any possible illegal entries, as Breitbart News reported.
The latest proposals, as noted by Reuters, include detaining asylum seekers while authorities determine whether Germany is responsible for processing their case with the help of Europe’s shared fingerprint database, Eurodac, amongst other tools, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told a news conference.
“We want people whose asylum procedure is the responsibility of another E.U. country to be sent back there,” Faeser said.
The Reuters report notes the measures reflect Germany’s hardening stance on immigration in the wake of high arrivals of asylum seekers from both the Middle East and Ukraine which could strain relations with other European states.
German federal police watch over cars arriving at the German-Polish border on September 10, 2024 in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said Germany will widen its police monitoring to all of its border crossings to stop irregular immigration, with those arriving to seek asylum to be turned away with the directive to return to the country they are crossing from. (Maja Hitij/Getty)
“We will approach our European partners at a high political level to ensure that they give their approval for readmission to the respective countries more quickly so that the European rules are complied with,” Faeser said.
The German Federal Police Union (DPolG Bundespolizei) confirmed its members remain well-positioned for the checks at the land borders, Die Welt reports.
There are “sufficient forces” to take on this task, said the federal chairman of the union, Heiko Teggatz, to the Rheinische Post in Düsseldorf.
“We can handle this from everyday business, so we won’t need any additional staff for this,” he emphasized.
During the additional border controls, cars should be flagged down at random and checked. Teggatz does not expect any “serious impacts” on traffic. “The federal police will ensure the controls in combination with stationary measures and veil searches.”