German Interior Minister Plans to Extend Border Controls

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser intends to extend border controls beyond March 2025.

Faeser said in statements to the “Augsburger Allgemeine” newspaper: “Our comprehensive measures to reduce illegal immigration and combat smuggling crimes are successful… We need this border control until the EU’s external border protection is clearly strengthened.”

To combat illegal immigration, Germany expanded border controls from the east and south of the country to the west and north last September for six months.

At that time, Faeser justified the permanent border controls with efforts to combat irregular migration and to protect against “Islamist” terrorists and cross-border crime.

The expanded border control includes borders with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, while border controls with France had already been imposed due to the Paris Olympics. Controls were implemented along the German-Polish, German-Czech, and German-Swiss borders since mid-October last year, and the German-Austrian border has had controls in place since the fall of 2015.

Faeser also said, “Deportations have increased by more than 50% in the past two years,” adding, “We are also the only country in Europe that has again deported dangerous criminals to Afghanistan… and we will continue to do so.”