The German states demand additional measures at the borders of Germany and the EU

According to a document obtained by the Bild publication before the immigration meeting scheduled for Wednesday, the representatives of the German states demand drastic measures at Germany’s borders. “Controls at the internal borders and repatriations are needed. Almost all the Länder, as well as locality associations, agree on the need for a broad set of immediate measures to stop illegal migration in the long term. At the external borders of the European Union, short-term measures are needed to protecting the borders”, the document, also viewed by Der Spiegel magazine, shows.

At the same time, in line with the Olaf Scholz Government’s approach, which wants to attract labor from outside the EU, the Länder demand the expansion of the list of safe states, without risks of uncontrolled migration.

The Länder’s proposals will probably be met with reluctance by the Government in Berlin. Germany can only apply controls at the country’s borders in exceptional situations, by virtue of the Agreement on the functioning of the Schengen Free Movement Area.

A few days ago, the German Minister of Finance, Christian Lindner, and the Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, pleaded for additional security measures at the external borders of the European Union, in order to counter illegal immigration, even suggesting the installation of fences and rapid expulsions . “I believe that, in the implementation of control measures, the possibility of physical barriers at the external borders” of the European Union, by building fences, should be examined, Christian Lindner said in an interview granted to RTL/NTV. The German Minister of Finance pleaded for “facilitating the access of immigrants with humanitarian reasons and those who are qualified”, according to the publication Die Welt.

“We will insist on credible measures for the identification, registration and additional verification of persons at the external borders of the European Union”, said, for her part, Nancy Faeser, the German Minister of the Interior, in an interview granted to the publication Handelsblatt. Negotiations are taking place in Brussels on the topic of control procedures, with proposals for asylum applications to be analyzed quickly at the external borders, not after entering the EU space. “Asylum seekers will be able to be quickly expelled from the external borders of the EU”, insisted Nancy Faeser.

But politicians from the Left Party (Die Linke, opposition) criticized the Berlin Government’s plans, arguing that many non-EU immigrants will no longer have the right to fair asylum procedures. Bodo Ramelow, the prime minister of the German state of Thuringia, requested, according to the RND station, the automatic recognition of the legal status of asylum seekers who came to Germany after 2014, if they have not committed crimes for three years.