Today, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community issued a notification at EU level to renew the order for temporary border checks at Germany’s land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. The aim of this is to continue to combat illegal immigrant smuggling and to restrict irregular migration. On the basis of Article 25 of the Schengen Borders Code, the order for temporary checks at the aforementioned borders, which is currently valid until 15 June 2024, will be extended to 15 December 2024. A renewal of temporary border checks at the German-Austrian land border was also ordered recently; these checks are now set to continue until 11 November 2024.

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser said: “We are still taking resolute action to prohibit the unscrupulous business of people smuggling and to restrict irregular migration. To achieve this, we will continue to conduct temporary checks at our borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland for a further six months, until mid-December 2024.

The Federal Police can now continue to act flexibly, choosing from a whole package of static and mobile border policing measures. Since mid-October 2023, the Federal Police have arrested around 920 people smugglers in the course of their checks, including at the Austrian border. This shows that these measures are working. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to our Federal Police officers for their great dedication.

It remains a high priority for us that these checks should have as little impact as possible on commuters and daily life in the affected border regions. We will therefore continue to coordinate our measures closely, and at all administrative levels, with our neighbouring countries.”

Police border checks will continue to be carried out at flexible locations and times and along different smuggling routes according to how the situation develops. This is to help prevent smugglers from using alternative routes.

Since the temporary border checks were reintroduced at Germany’s borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland on 16 October 2023, the Federal Police have recorded approximately 37,600 illegal entries and have implemented around 23,000 measures to end residence or prevent entry.

The number of illegal entries detected nationwide has decreased from some 21,000 in September 2023 to around 7,500 in April 2024.

It is currently the case that third-country nationals requesting protection are generally taken to an initial reception centre to have their asylum case reviewed, and, if applicable, may be transferred to another EU member state in accordance with the Dublin Regulation. The same applies in the case of temporary checks at internal borders.