Germany’s Federal Police have published some new findings on irregular border crossings, highlighting trends observed since checks on all German borders were introduced last month.
With border controls being introduced along all of Germany’s land borders last month, the success of these measures is now being tightly monitored after initial reports indicating that they might not be as effective as hoped.
While in the past, the main focus was on Germany’s eastern and southern borders, interceptions along the country’s western borders have also now been recorded.
A total of 2,448 unauthorized entries had been detected since these border controls were established on all nine land borders, with 838 cases of irregular entries being recorded at Germany’s borders with France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands alone, according to a statement by the German Federal Police published by the dpa news agency.
Officials said that 539 of them were sent back at these western points-of-entry, authorities added, without highlighting in further detail what happened to the other cases. The majority of these unauthorized border crossings were reportedly detected along the border with France.
The increase in targeted border controls in Germany have attracted a great deal of criticism abroad | Photo: picture alliance / dpa
A further 18 unauthorized entries were recorded along the German-Danish border in the north between September 16 and October 02. Of those entries, 14 were recorded of cases of people who were then sent back to Denmark.
Authorities further specified that at Germany’s western borders, 25 people were denied entry because they had earlier been issued a re-entry ban, while on the border to the north with Denmark, it was three people.
Federal police officers also reported that in the past two weeks, they had executed a total of 387 outstanding arrest warrants at all nine land borders, which could only be done due to the introduction of these border checks.
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Border checks in every direction
Since September 16, checks have been reintroduced at all German borders in a bid to reduce the number of irregular entries into the central European nation.
There had already been temporary controls in place at the border with France since the end of July as part of measures introduced for the Olympic Games, which were held in Paris.
Checks on the Swiss, Austrian, Polish and Czech borders had also been on the book for some time, as the majority of irregular entries were known to occur on these routes.
Now, there also are checks at the land borders with Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
In theory, Germany's border controls can only be reinforced under extraordinary circumstances, as a member of the EU's Schengen area of free movement. The current checks are expected to be in place at least until the end of the year and are subject to renewal.
Many of Germany's neighbors as well as other members of the Schengen zone further afield have criticized Germany's unilateral decisions to fortify border controls.
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with dpa