In view of the migration via the Belarus route, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has given the prospect of deploying further federal police officers in the border area with Poland “if necessary”. “At the German-Polish border we have already reinforced the border guard with eight hundred federal police,” said the CSU politician of “Bild am Sonntag”. “If necessary, I am ready to step up there even further. We will closely control the border area and the green border with Poland. “
Seehofer also made it clear that border controls could be considered there if necessary. “Last week we announced the extension of the controls at the German-Austrian border for a further six months in Brussels. If the situation on the German-Polish border does not relax, it must be considered whether this step has to be taken in coordination with Poland and the state of Brandenburg. ”This decision will be made by the next government.
There are actually no stationary border controls at the borders between the 26 countries in the Schengen area. Exceptions are possible in particularly dangerous situations. Seehofer said in the interview that if possible there should be no more border controls within Europe. “But that only works if the external border protection works.”
The European Union has accused the Belarusian ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, of bringing refugees from crisis regions to the EU’s external border in an organized manner. Lukashenko announced at the end of May that he no longer wanted to prevent migrants from continuing to travel to the EU – in response to tightened Western sanctions against the former Soviet republic. Since then, reports of attempted illegal border crossings at the EU’s external borders with Belarus and at the German-Polish border have increased.
According to their own information, the Federal Police registered 3751 unauthorized entries with a connection to Belarus for the current month by Thursday. In the current year, a total of 6162 unauthorized entries related to Belarus were detected by the federal police. The German-Polish border is the focus. Many of the migrants and refugees arriving there come from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Seehofer had recently proposed joint German-Polish patrols on the border – especially on the Polish side – to his Polish counterpart Mariusz Kaminski. The answer from Warsaw, however, remained vague. (dpa)
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