Germany expands border controls as right pressures government on migration
Al Jazeera
The governing parties are seeking to head off challenge of the far right as it faces key elections.
Germany has expanded border control measures, with the crossings to all nine of its neighbouring countries now being checked.
The checks, implemented on Monday in what the government said last week are a bid to to curb entry of undocumented migrants, are due to last six months.
The move has drawn criticism from other European Union members, rights groups, and Brussels for disrupting the bloc’s border-free Schengen zone. However, with national elections looming next year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is under intense political pressure from far-right political groups to toughen its stance on migration in the wake of a deadly knife attack.
The controls include temporary physical structures at land crossings and spot checks by federal police, according to the AFP news agency.
Border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland were already in place before the extended regime was announced. Checks will now also cover Germany’s borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.
