The number of illegal border crossings into Germany has increased markedly since the start of the year, according to authorities, as the government of Olaf Scholz comes under growing pressure to tighten controls. In particular, the group urged Scholz to drop his plans to carry out asylum processes for arrivals on the EU border, insisting it would undermine refugee protection laws and lead to humanitarian violations. This year, 4,000 of what they referred to as irregular crossings have taken place there, of people mostly from Syria, followed by Afghanistan and Turkey. “We’re talking about several thousand kilometres of internal Schengen border that would need to be controlled. Recently, the interior ministers of Brandenburg, Saxony and Baden-Württemberg spoke out in favour of controls on the Polish border, as well as on Germany’s border with Switzerland.

Source: The Guardian May 18, 2023 03:45 UTC