What effect does the tightening of controls at German borders have?

2025-06-02 09:57:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

For about three weeks now, Germany has been tightening border controls with neighboring countries. What have these measures brought about so far?

The president of Germany's Federal Police, Dieter Romann, gave an initially positive assessment of the tightening of controls at all German borders. In an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, he also rejected criticism from the Police Union that the Federal Police is being overwhelmed by the new border controls.

"Why is the Federal Police, which today has around 56,000 employees, not able to do what we used to do with 10,000 or 30,000 officers?" Romann told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. Neighboring countries are sympathetic to the German measures and we are in close contact with them, he said.

According to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, since the start of the tightened border controls on May 8, 3,387 people have been registered at all German borders who attempted to enter without permission. 2,613 of them were not allowed to enter. Of the 160 people who applied for asylum, 125 were rejected. 35 refugees were allowed to enter because they were sick or accompanied by children.

German Interior Minister Defends Border Controls

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said during a visit to the Czech Republic that border checks constitute an additional workload for the police, but made clear that they are necessary to reduce the "large pull effect that illegal migration has."

Hours after taking office as minister in early May, Dobrindt ordered the intensification of border controls. At the same time, he allowed asylum seekers to be refused entry at the border and forced to return to the country from which they tried to enter German territory - a move that was criticized by both the German opposition and neighboring countries.

Dobrindt believes that the measures to tighten border controls are already having an effect. "There are no problems at the German borders," Dobrindt said. We do not want to overburden Germany's neighbors, "but our neighbors must also recognize that Germany is no longer willing to continue the migration policy it has pursued in recent years," the minister said./ DW