CNN —Germany announced Wednesday that it is ramping up its border controls with neighboring Poland and the Czech Republic to “limit human trafficking,” as the country faces fierce debate on its migration policy while asylum applications surge.
Police will carry out “additional flexible checks and mobile controls along the smuggling routes at the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the press.
The announcement came as the interior minister raised the possibility of implementing fixed controls along the borders with its two eastern neighbors this week.
Until now, the southern state of Bavaria on the Austrian border was the only part of Germany with stationary border controls, a legacy of the 2015-2016 migration crisis when Europe’s leading economy took in over a million refugees.
“We are fighting to keep internal border controls open within the European Union.
Persons:
CNN —, Nancy Faeser, Lisi Niesner, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s, Faeser, Italy –, Berlin’s, ” Alexander Handschuh, Handschuh, Angela Merkel’s
Organizations:
CNN, Police, ”, Immigration, Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, European Union, Office, Migration, Refugees, German Federal Police, German Association of Towns
Locations:
Poland, Czech Republic, Czech, Bavaria, Austrian, Germany, Polish, Forst, Hesse, Italy, Berlin, –, Brussels, “, Ukraine, Municipalities