Germany extends border checks until at least September

Controls at Germany’s borders are to continue at least until September, the Interior Ministry announced on Monday.

The controls temporarily reintroduced and then extended to German land borders will be extended beyond March 15, initially for an additional six months, the press release specifies.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt informed the European Commission of this decision, his ministry announced on Monday.

“These border controls remain necessary for reasons of migration policy and security,” said a ministry spokesperson.

Germany is part of the EU’s Schengen visa-free travel area, where such checks can only be introduced as temporary measures. However, checks have been taking place at the border between Germany and Austria since 2015.

In October 2023, Nancy Faeser, then Minister of the Interior, also ordered border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

Since September 2024, the German federal police have been carrying out border checks with Denmark, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Dobrindt has extended and intensified these temporary controls, of which the European Commission must be informed.

After taking office in May, he decreed that asylum seekers should be turned away at German land borders, with exceptions for pregnant women, unaccompanied minors and sick people.

Marcel Emmerich of the opposition Greens party, which has for some time called for an end to border controls within the EU, criticized the measure. “The expansion of border controls harms Europe, paralyzes the police, weighs on the economy and breaks the law by turning people back,” he said.