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Police union calls border controls disproportionate

The police union is complaining about 2.8 million hours of overtime for the federal police. (Archive image) / Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa
The police union is complaining about 2.8 million hours of overtime for the federal police. (Archive image) / Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa

For the Federal Police, the intensive checks at the borders are a tour de force. And the results are rather poor. Things cannot go on like this, says the GdP trade union.

Two months after the start of stricter border controls and the rejection of asylum seekers, the police union (GdP) is criticizing the effort as increasingly disproportionate. "The number of asylum and protection seekers being turned back is actually very low, but the effort for the federal police is huge," said Andreas Roßkopf, GdP chairman for federal police and customs, in an interview with the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

The trade unionist complained that the number of 285 rejections is now offset by 2.8 million hours of overtime for the federal police. "This puts an enormous strain on the motivation and health of employees," he warned and called for the intensity of border controls to be reduced as quickly as possible. "Otherwise, the federal police will reach a point where they will no longer be able to compensate for the workload in terms of personnel."

Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) had ordered more intensive border controls shortly after the new federal government took office at the beginning of May. At the same time, he ordered that asylum seekers could also be turned back at the border from 8 May.

According to the Federal Police, 7,960 unauthorized entries have been registered at German borders since then and 6,193 people have been directly turned back or deported by the end of June. These included 285 people who had applied for asylum. In response to the German action, Poland has been carrying out random checks on travelers at the border with Germany since Monday.

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Roßkopf admitted that the number of asylum applications had fallen since the federal police began turning people back. "But above all, we assume that the controls are being circumvented and the smugglers are using new routes," said the trade unionist. "We simply cannot manage to monitor every corner of the border."

The GdP had already sounded the alarm in May and declared that the tightened controls and rejections at the border could not be maintained for long in terms of personnel. However, the Federal Ministry of the Interior had made it clear at the time that they were not expected to be scaled back any time soon.

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