Since regular inspections began, illegal crossings have decreased

Police detected 13% fewer illegal border crossings with Germany in the first three weeks after permanent border checks began than in the previous three weeks, preliminary official figures released on Thursday showed.

According to Federal Police data obtained by the dpa agency, the police detected a total of 3,464 foreigners who tried to enter without authorization at the land borders between September 16 and October 6.

Of them, 2,073 were returned at the border. Between August 26 and September 15, there were 3,984 unauthorized entries and a total of 2,353 denials.

The data comes after a parliamentary request by far-left Member of Parliament for Die Linke (left) Clara Bünger.

Since September 16, the Federal Police has been conducting checks on Germany’s land borders with France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.

Random checks on the border with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland have been in effect since mid-October 2023, and on the German-Austrian border they were introduced back in autumn 2015. However, not every traveler is checked.

Since the introduction of permanent checks, the number of unauthorized entries has increased at the borders with Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. At the German-French border, where temporary checks were already held this year in connection with the European Football Championship in Germany, a slight decrease from 766 to 567 unauthorized entries was recorded during the reporting period.

Border control, as a rule, contradicts the provisions on the free movement of people laid out in the Schengen Agreement. Home Secretary Nancy Feather has justified permanent checks at all land borders to the EU Commission, saying they are necessary because of illegal migration, cross-border crime and protection against Islamist terrorists.