Migration: Border controls start on Monday – “End of the spirit of Schengen”, criticises Poland

Last week, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) ordered that there should be stationary controls at all national borders from Monday. This affects France, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. In Lower Saxony, the announced stationary controls will begin on Monday morning at the border with the Netherlands.

From midnight onwards, additional federal police officers will be on duty to check people entering the country from the Netherlands on the Lower Saxony side. Such controls already exist at the borders with Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

Fixed border controls are not actually planned in the Schengen area. The reasons for this arrangement are to further limit irregular migration and to protect internal security, particularly against Islamist terrorism and serious cross-border crime.

“We will carry out random, selective and temporary checks at various points in the flow of traffic,” said a police spokesman. Patrol cars, police motorcycles and civilian vehicles would be used for the additional checks. Commuter and tourist traffic should be affected as little as possible. “That does not mean that everyone who crosses the border will be checked.” There are no full checks. “But everyone must be prepared to be checked without reason when crossing the border,” said the spokesman. There are no stationary checkpoints; the concept is mobile.

Cross-border rail traffic is also being monitored more closely. According to the Federal Police, the impact on commuters and other passenger and goods traffic is to be kept as low as possible. Travelers should have an identity card or passport and, if necessary, a residence permit ready when crossing the border.

Herzogenrath fears burden for commuters

Meanwhile, border controls with Belgium and the Netherlands are causing concern in the border region of North Rhine-Westphalia. “We are concerned that border controls could change the character of our region,” said a spokesman for the city of Herzogenrath. “There is a risk that it will be a burden for the many thousands of citizens of both countries and will also have a negative economic impact.”

In Herzogenrath, the German-Dutch border runs right through the middle of the city. “Many people from both cities live and work on the other side of the border every day or do cross-border errands,” said the spokesman. The border is not visible and fluid in many places. The city does not want to see old border huts and walls reactivated. “Instead of reviving the EU’s internal borders, solutions should be found to protect the EU’s external borders.” What is not achieved at the external borders can hardly be made up for internally.”

“Unusual art of dealing with one’s neighbours”

Poland, meanwhile, sees the introduction of border controls at all German external borders as a strain on relations between the two countries. “We were not informed in any way in advance,” Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Teofil Bartoszewski told Stern magazine on Friday. “We found out about it when the German Interior Minister made the decision public.” Bartoszewski criticized this as “a somewhat unusual way of dealing with one’s neighbors.”

He added: “You cannot surprise your neighbours with such decisions. That is not how you treat partners.” The introduction of border controls is the “end of the spirit of Schengen,” he said, referring to the European area in which free movement of people and goods is usually guaranteed.

Meanwhile, the German government does not see any strained relationship with Poland. “I cannot see any strain there,” said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit on Friday in Berlin. The discussions on migration policy that are being held here are also being held by Germany with its European neighbours.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is also in contact with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. “We are working very closely with the new Polish government,” emphasized a spokesman for the Foreign Office.

The border controls at all German land borders are initially set to last for six months. However, controls have been in place at the borders with Poland since October last year – “closely coordinated” with Poland, as a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said on Friday. For the country, “nothing at all” will therefore change. The expansion from Monday will extend to Germany’s western and northern borders.