Germany is set to expand its border checks following a knife attack that resulted in three deaths in Solingen in August. The government has faced increasing pressure to adopt stricter immigration policies since the attack, carried out by a Syrian national who was slated for deportation after a failed asylum bid. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The new border controls, which will begin on 16 September and last for an initial six months, were announced shortly after the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) made significant gains in local elections.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser emphasized that the government is “taking a hard line” against irregular migration. She stated that the new measures are intended to reduce Islamist extremism and cross-border crime, saying, “We are doing everything in our power to protect the people of our country against these threats.”
Germany already has border controls at its eastern and southern borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Austria, primarily involving spot checks on roads and trains. The new measures will extend these controls to all border points.
Critics argue that the expansion of border checks is driven more by political motives than security concerns. The AfD’s strong performance in regional elections in the east has unsettled Germany’s mainstream parties, which have interpreted the results as a call from voters for a tougher stance on immigration and border security.
In recent years, Germany has allowed a significant number of asylum seekers to settle, including over one million people during the 2015-2016 migrant crisis and 1.2 million Ukrainians since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
With polls suggesting the AfD could perform well in the upcoming regional election in Brandenburg on 22 September, both centre-left and centre-right parties are proposing measures that would have seemed improbable until recently.
The CDU – the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel – has proposed turning all asylum seekers back at the border, even those who are eligible, on the basis they have travelled through other safe EU countries.
Gerhard Karner, Austria’s interior minister, told Bild newspaper on Monday that his country would not take in any migrants rejected by Germany.
“There’s no room for manoeuvre there,” he said.
Since the Solingen stabbing, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has announced a raft of measures on migration.
They include changing the rules so asylum seekers facing deportation will lose benefits, and resuming the deportation of convicted Afghan criminals to their home country for the first time since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
