Germany’s new Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters on Wednesday that he had instructed federal police to tighten border controls with the goal of turning back more irregular migrants, including those who intend to seek asylum.
Poland and Austria have criticized the new government’s plan, which would also see Berlin rejecting people who want to claim asylum.
In case anyone is curious what that means in practice: There’s federal police driving around in border areas investigating “lost people” reports, i.e. people dumped at the side of the street by traffickers, and drive them to the next town to get processed. Occasionally they can catch a glimpse of a license plate. Those guys now get more overtime.
As to the rejecting asylum thing: IIRC you’re supposed to apply for asylum in the first EU country you step foot on, the refugee distribution mechanism only distributes people who filed paperwork, it doesn’t mean that you can choose where you file.
This is 100% symbolic, with no actual real-world impact. Which, we can only hope, is the only type of politics the Dobrindt will do.
Since there is a finite number of police officers, those officers will be missing elsewhere in the country. And iirc, the queues before border crossings were already longer due to border checks.
Well, Bundespolizei Officers used for this aren’t usually the brightest, and they only fulfill their jobs at Airports, Borders and Train Stations, so they won’t be badly missed
The states generally have shit covered on their own and aren’t relying on the BPOL, the BKA certainly won’t get involved, they could divert some personnel from the railway system or Bepo. I very much doubt that, though, why do things when you can say that you’re doing things.
…in fact, if I were a BPOL higher-up I’d interpret “tighten border controls” to mean “stop that pointless driving around in the countryside and station those people at international airports, instead”. You know, places where there’s actual border checkpoints that can be tightened. Let state police deal with stray foreigners dumped roadside.