Germany extends border checks until at least September

Checks at Germany’s borders are to be continued until at least September, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

The temporarily reintroduced and later extended checks at Germany’s land borders will be extended beyond March 15, initially for a further six months, it said.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has informed the European Commission of the move, his ministry announced on Monday.

“These border checks are still necessary for reasons of migration and security policy,” a ministry spokesman said.

Germany is part of the EU’s Schengen visa-free travel area, where such checks can only to be introduced as temporary measures. However, there have been checks at Germany’s border with Austria since 2015.

In October 2023, the then interior minister, Nancy Faeser, also ordered checks on the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

Since September 2024, the German Federal Police have been carrying out checks at the borders with Denmark, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Dobrindt has extended and intensified these temporary checks, about which the European Commission must be notified.

After taking office in May, he decreed that asylum seekers should be turned back at Germany’s land borders, with exceptions for pregnant women, unaccompanied minors and sick people.

Marcel Emmerich from the opposition Greens, who have been calling for an end to border checks within the EU for some time, criticized the measure. “Extending border checks harms Europe, paralyses the police, burdens the economy and breaks the law by turning people back,” he said.