Dobrindt extends border controls until at least September

Controls at all German borders are to be continued until at least September. According to his ministry, Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) has informed the EU Commission that the temporarily reintroduced and later extended internal border controls at Germany's land borders will be extended beyond March 15 for an initial period of six months.

"These border controls are still necessary for reasons of migration and security policy," said a spokesperson. Bild had first reported on the planned extension of the controls. According to his ministry, Dobrindt said: "Border controls are an element of our reorganization of migration policy in Germany."

Internal border controls gradually extended

Border controls are not actually planned in the Schengen area. There have been stationary controls at the border with Austria since 2015. In October 2023, the then Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser (SPD), also ordered such controls for the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Since September 2024, the federal police have also been carrying out checks at the borders with Denmark, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Dobrindt has extended and intensified these temporary checks, which must be notified to the European Commission. After taking office in May, he also decreed that people who want to apply for asylum in Germany should also be turned back at the internal borders. However, there are exceptions, such as for pregnant women, unaccompanied minors and sick people.

The Greens have long been calling for an end to internal border controls. Their domestic policy spokesperson, Marcel Emmerich, says: "Extending border controls harms Europe, paralyzes the police, burdens the economy and breaks the law by turning people back."