Oppressive Immigration Policies: Selective Barriers

The federal government likes to give a sedative. According to Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), “people, commuters, trade and the economy in the border area” should be affected “as little as possible” by the border controls that will now be implemented on all federal borders of the Federal Republic of Germany from Monday this week. At the same time, the additional border checkpoints are intended to “further reduce illegal migration, stop smugglers, stop criminals and identify and stop Islamists early,” the minister said in Berlin on Sunday.

What could raise suspicions of police arbitrariness and encourage the prohibited “racial profiling” of officials? This is “not comprehensive but rather targeted control,” the Federal Interior Ministry announced on Sunday. The Federal Police will carry out this “flexibly, depending on current security requirements.” The duration and specific locations of the checks will vary accordingly. Tagschau.de On Sunday, Faeser was quoted as promising there would be “no long traffic jams, but smart control”.

This will initially take place for six months on the borders with the northwestern neighbours of Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France. According to the interior minister, it should also enable an “effective rejection” of those entering the country illegally. There are already fixed border controls on the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland, and Faeser has repeatedly reported this to the EU Commission in recent days. Most recently, the Olympic Games in France and the European Championships in Germany have been used as a pretext to weaken the Schengen Agreement on the end of internal border controls.

Faeser claimed that more than 30,000 people have been turned back since the border controls came into force in October 2023. “Unfortunately, we cannot rely entirely on all our neighbours doing things the way they should,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) told the so-called citizens’ dialogue in the Brandenburg town of Prenzlau. “If 300,000 people come to Germany as they did in 2023 and only some of them have legal protection rights, that is not good,” the SPD said. The Brandenburg state parliament is up for re-election next Sunday. Current polls show the SPD party of Chancellor Dietmar Woidke with support at around 25-26 percent, behind the AfD (27-29 percent).

In Prenzlau, Scholz stressed that the government “will of course comply with European law.” The immigration commission, a research body, made it clear on Tuesday that it is “illegal” to refuse people seeking protection under the current legal situation. The police lobby welcomes the additional crackdown, but points out that there is a lack of necessary personnel. “We will be busy until Monday morning trying to gather the necessary forces,” said Andreas Roskopf, president of the professional association of the Federal Police Regional Police Association. Editing Network Germany (Saturday). “We have to be careful not to let Scholz fall into a prolonged overload at the end of August.” ZDF He explains that he wants to keep existing border controls in place “for as long as possible” because they have proven to be “very effective”.

The federal government’s decision was not welcomed beyond its borders. Poland’s pro-Western Prime Minister Donald Tusk had criticized the increased border controls as unacceptable before his call with Scholz. Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Greece’s right-wing conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis joined together on Wednesday to call for more support for EU countries with external borders, which will be hit hardest by migration.

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