Germany’s new government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz has ordered border police to reject undocumented migrants including asylum seekers, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Wednesday.
Dobrindt said he was issuing an order “to ensure that the police can make such pushbacks”, adding that exceptions would be made for “vulnerable groups” including pregnant women and children.
A day after Merz was sworn in, his new government also said it was boosting its border police as part of a promised crackdown on irregular immigration.
The Bild daily said Dobrindt had given an order for 2,000 to 3,000 extra federal officers to be sent to Germany’s borders, in addition to the 11,000 already in place.
He said the aim was to guarantee “humanity and order”, adding that order should be “given greater weight and strength than may have been seen in the past”.
Merz has argued that tough measures are needed to ease voters’ concerns and to halt the rise of the far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AFD) party.
The AfD won a record of more than 20 percent in the February elections, second only to Merz’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance, and has since risen further in opinion polls, at times coming first.
News outlet Der Spiegel reported that after Dobrindt had ordered the extra police to be deployed, they would have to work shifts of up to 12 hours a day to enforce the new regime.
Federal police union chief Andreas Rosskopf told the Rheinische Post newspaper that the “the reinforcement of forces at the border has started” in line with Dobrindt’s instructions.
The coalition agreement between Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) also says that all people arriving at German borders without documents will be refused entry, including those seeking asylum.
This last point has raised controversy, with some in the SPD voicing concerns it may not be compatible with European Union law.
The agreement also says increased checks at Germany’s borders are to remain in place until “there is effective protection of external EU borders”.
Police unions have previously said they may lack the manpower to exercise such controls indefinitely.
Amid a spate of violent attacks blamed on foreign nationals in the run-up to February’s general election, Merz made a crackdown on irregular migration a key theme of his campaign.
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