Germany to Prolong Border Controls With Czechia, Poland & Switzerland Until February 2024

The Minister of Interior of Germany, Nancy Faeser, has said that the country will continue keeping border controls with Czechia, Poland, and Switzerland in place for another two months.

The current measures that Germany has with the three countries are set to end on December 15. However, Minister Faeser said during an interview with Rheinische Post last week that the measure will continue until February 2024, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Commenting on the move, Minister Faeser said that the border controls have proven to be effective. She further stressed that due to increased controls, the country has been able to detect people smugglers and prevent irregular entries of migrants.

For this reason, the internal border controls with Czechia, Poland, and Switzerland will remain effective until February.

The border controls between Germany and the three countries were initially introduced in October. Since they were effective, they got extended until December 15, with additional officers being deployed at the borders.

Data provided by the Ministry of Interior of Germany show that around 9,200 unauthorised entries have been detected since border controls were introduced in October.

The same further revealed that during the same period, around 4,370 unauthorised entries have been prevented.

Taking into account such figures, a spokesperson of the Ministry of Interior said that the measures must be working.

On the other hand, Deutsche Welle explains that one of the main police unions of Germany, GdP, criticised the measures and questioned their effectiveness.

Andreas Roßkopf from the GdP said that despite the strict measures, the police would not be able to reduce the number of asylum seekers.

He further said that the authorities need to clarify if police officers should remain at the country’s border or be deployed in cities with a high number of asylum seekers for security reasons.

Germany is not the only Schengen Member States that is currently keeping border controls in place.

Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Czechia, and Finland are just some of the countries that have border checks in place with some other Member States.

Slovenia is the latest country to announce the extension of its measures. The Slovenian authorities said just last week that the country will continue to carry out border controls with Croatia and Hungary until December 21.

Commenting on the prolongation, the government of Slovakia said that the measure is being extended due to increased migration concerns.