Fight against people smugglers:

Germany wants significantly longer border controls

German police officers check a Bulgarian van at the border with Belgium in Aachen. Border controls in Germany have been extended since September 16 - to the national borders in the west and north. The German government justifies this with the migration situation.

(Bild: AP/The Associated Press)

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to continue border controls beyond March 2025. "Our comprehensive measures to limit irregular migration and combat people smuggling are working," said the SPD politician.

"We need these controls until the protection of the EU's external borders is significantly strengthened," Faeser emphasized to the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

Germany has been controlling all external borders since September
Border controls are not actually planned in the Schengen area. In order to combat illegal immigration, Germany extended its current border controls in the east and south of the country to the west and north for a period of six months in September.

German controls at the border with France in Kehl

(Bild: AP/The Associated Press)

Faeser justified the order for stationary controls at all land borders at the time with irregular migration as well as protection against Islamist terrorists and cross-border crime.

German police officers check a Bulgarian van at the border with Belgium in Aachen. Since September 16, border controls in Germany have been extended - to the national borders in the west and north. The German government justifies this with the migration situation.

(Bild: AP/The Associated Press)

Controls have been extended more and more
The borders with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg were affected by the extension. Checks had already been carried out at the border with France due to the Olympic Games in Paris. Checks have been in place at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland since mid-October last year, and were introduced at the German-Austrian land border in the fall of 2015.

Faeser also said that deportations had increased by over 50 percent in the past two years. "We have also deported dangerous criminals to Afghanistan again for the first time - as the only country in Europe to do so," she explained. "We will continue to do so."