German interior minister says the country will step up border policy to send a “signal” to the world

Less than 24 hours after taking office on Wednesday, the 7th April, Germany’s new Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, a member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative bloc, told reporters that he had ordered the federal police to step up border controls with the aim of turning back more illegal migrants, including those planning to seek asylum, reports Politico.
“We will tighten control of the borders, [which] … will also lead to more [asylum] refusals,” Dobrindt said, fulfilling one of his party’s key campaign promises.
However, he added that vulnerable people, including children and pregnant women, would not be refused entry at the German border.
“It is not a question of starting tomorrow to turn everyone away completely, but of reducing, step by step, the excessive demands, reducing numbers [of immigrants] and sending a clear signal to the world and to Europe that German policy has changed,” Dobrindt said.
While most legal experts argue that rejecting asylum seekers contravenes EU law, Dobrindt said there is a clear legal basis for the decision and said he and Merz are “in talks” with Berlin’s neighbours on this new approach.
Last week, Polish and Austrian officials criticised the new German government’s plan in comments to Politico. Poland’s top diplomat in Berlin, Jan Tombiński, said that the current controls “already cause problems for daily border traffic and the functioning of the EU internal market”, while Austria’s interior ministry cited a European Court of Justice ruling that unofficial returns are illegal.
Merz, who also promised in the run-up to the elections to improve relations with Germany’s neighbours and play a greater role in Europe, was in Warsaw when Dobrindt announced the new border plan.
Asked about criticism from Poland and Austria, Dobrindt said Germany’s tougher rules would help strengthen the common European asylum system, which Germany wants to improve together with other countries.
By redirecting more asylum applications to Europe’s external borders, Dobrindt explained, the need for checks at internal borders could be reduced.
“We want to see open borders in Europe again. But the current situation is frankly dysfunctional. It needs to be sorted out and then we can get back to reducing border controls very quickly,” he said.