How Germany plans to tighten border controls in immigration crackdown

By Sarah Marsh, Jan Lopatka, Alan Charlish

BERLIN/PRAGUE/WARSAW (Reuters) -Germany announced plans this week to extend controls to all its land borders and turn away more asylum seekers in a bid to reduce irregular migration in a shift from its previous open-door policy.

Germany lies at the heart of Europe, with land borders to nine countries. The plans mark a setback to free movement within the European Union, a pillar of the European project, and could strain regional unity.

Here's more on the plans, what motivated them, and what reactions they have sparked: 

WHAT DID GERMANY ANNOUNCE?

Germany announced on Monday it would extend temporary controls to all its land borders. 

The controls within what is normally a wide area of free movement - the European Schengen zone - will start on Sept. 16 and initially last for six months.

On Tuesday it announced proposals to toughen up the implementation of EU rules on asylum including detaining asylum seekers while authorities determine whether Germany is responsible for processing their case.

Police could do so with the help of Europe's shared fingerprint database, Eurodac, amongst other tools.

The government rejected measures requested by the opposition conservatives to automatically reject asylum seekers at the borders, which it and others deemed to be contrary to EU law.

WHY NOW?

Analysts say that while irregular migration has increasingly strained public services, the plans are likely also politically motivated and a bid to stem support for the opposition far-right and conservatives ahead of state and federal elections.

Polls show migration is voters' top concern in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, which holds elections in ten days and where Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are fighting to retain power.

Currently the anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) is polling first, after earlier this month it became the first far-right party since World War Two to win a state election, in Thuringia.

Recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers have stoked concerns over immigration. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the western city of Solingen that killed three people in August.

HOW COULD THIS IMPACT TRAVEL IN THE EU?

Travellers may expect more random checks on cars, trains or buses crossing the borders which could result in some traffic delays and jams.

Anyone deemed to be entering Germany illegally could be refused entry, or detained at or near the border if they say they want to claim asylum in the country.

"I am not expecting the end of Schengen in general, rather a less functional space of free movement," said Marcus Engler at the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research.

HOW DID OTHER COUNTRIES REACT?

Some neighbouring countries have reacted with dismay to the news which may result in them having to take in more asylum seekers themselves and affect commuters and trade.

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk called on Tuesday for urgent consultations with other affected countries and more support for Warsaw's own immigration policies.

He said that what Poland needed was not tighter controls on its border with Germany, but more engagement from Berlin and others in securing the EU's external border.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said it would be wrong to "move to a logic of ad hoc exemptions from the Schengen agreement, with border controls that will ...hurt one of the fundamental achievements of the EU."

Others were more sanguine however, given Germany, like other EU countries, has already had controls on some of its borders. Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said for example that he did not expect material change as checks will be random.

Both Poland and the Czech Republic already have detention centres to hold migrants who do not have the necessary travel documents or whose asylum requests are being checked.

Meanwhile Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has long called for more to be done in Europe to stop irregular migration, welcomed the move: 

"Scholz, welcome to the club! #StopMigration," he said on X.

TRENDS IN ASYLUM APPLICATIONS

Th EU received more than 1.14 million asylum applications in 2023, the highest number since the migrant crisis in 2016, according to the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA). 

However, applications have dropped in recent months and in May were down by a third compared to the peak of last autumn.

Germany continued to receive the most applications for asylum, 22% of the total, whereas Ireland received the most per capita.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Berlin still needs to discuss its plans to detain asylum seekers at the borders with Germany's 16 regional governments whose authorities would need to implement them. It has also said it wants to consult with its European partners whose cooperation would be needed if it wants to send back asylum seekers.

However it can implement the border controls straight away, having already notified the European Commission of its decision.

(Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Alexander Ratz in Berlin, Jan Lopatka in Prague, Alan Charlish in Warsaw, Francois Murphy in Vienna, Renee Maltezou in Athens; editing by Matthias Williams, Alexandra Hudson)