A new EU regulation on the introduction of border controls came into force in June. Unwanted entries are to be prevented using drones, motion sensors and other technologies.
The police spoke out on Monday in the debate about stationary controls at Germany’s internal borders. Andreas Roßkopf, chairman of the GdP police union responsible for the Federal Police, warned of personnel and equipment bottlenecks. He is calling for “mobile, flexible and intelligent border controls” as well as mobile checkpoints that can be set up “flexibly and adapted to the situation”. The German government should provide around €35 million for this, he said.
According to the Schengen Agreement concluded in 1985, the more than 400 million citizens of the EU member states as well as Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein are actually allowed to cross the common internal borders without personal checks. An implementing agreement regulates “compensatory measures”, including the upgrading of the EU’s external borders and the creation of the Frontex border agency.
The implementation of control-free internal borders is regulated in the Schengen Borders Code. Short-term exceptions apply, for example, during major political or sporting events. With the “migration crisis”, countries such as Germany, France, Austria, Denmark and Norway utilised another paragraph from 2015 to resume border controls for an initial period of six months. This measure was extended to two years. In order to continue it, the states changed the justification to an alleged “risk of terrorist attacks”.
The EU Commission, as “guardian of the EU treaties” also responsible for compliance with the Schengen Agreement, repeatedly reprimanded the governments concerned for the internal border controls that had been in place for almost ten years. In 2021, it presented a proposal to revise the Borders Code. After three years, the member states and Parliament agreed on a final version, which came into force in June 2024. It distinguishes between “foreseeable” and “unforeseeable threats”.
Controls due to “foreseeable threats”, which are to last longer than six months, require a risk analysis by proclaiming states. This should examine whether the objectives can be achieved by more lenient means. The Commission must comment on extensions of more than 18 months. Border controls due to the same “exceptional situation with a persistent threat” may not exceed a total of three years.
Regulations for pandemics were also included, according to which the EU’s external borders can be partially closed or testing, quarantine and self-isolation measures can be prescribed by a Council decision.
There was controversy over the question of whether the “instrumentalisation” of migration should also be regulated in the regulation. This refers to cases such as at the EU borders with Turkey or Belarus, in which the governments deliberately brought refugees to the border so that they could enter the EU from there. According to the Borders Code, countries affected by such a situation may then close their external borders and other Schengen members may control their internal borders for one month, which can be extended to up to three months.
The updated Borders Code also contains new measures to combat alleged “smuggling of migrants” and to prevent migrants from entering at external and internal borders. To this end, “technical means” such as drones, motion sensors, cameras and “surveillance technologies for traffic flows” are to be increasingly used. “All types of stationary and mobile infrastructure” and “technologies for collecting personal data” at checkpoints are also permitted.
The head of the GdP, Roßkopf, is referring to these regulations with his demand for new, multi-million euro technology for mobile checkpoints. When asked by “nd”, a spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) emphasised that dragnet searches, i.e. targeted checks to prevent border crime, are also carried out at borders where there are no stationary controls.
Such “alternative police measures” are now also being strengthened. According to the updated Borders Code, “third-country nationals illegally present on their territory” who are apprehended following a border search can be immediately “transferred” to another member state from which they have entered. Neighbouring countries are to agree on procedures for this bilaterally.
This practice leads to more police checks based on racial, ethnic or religious characteristics, warns the Platform for International Cooperation to Secure Social Justice and Human Rights for Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), and legalises so-called “pushbacks”. The German Ministry of the Interior recently confirmed that this has long been the rule at Germany’s internal borders, stating that almost one in three irregular migrants is turned away at the border.
On Tuesday, the Federal Police published figures on unauthorised entries in the first half of 2024 and found a slight decrease. From January to June, 42,307 cases were registered, which corresponds to a decrease of 6.7 per cent compared to the same period last year. In 2023 as a whole, 127,549 unauthorised entries into Germany were recorded.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: The Bavarian border police already use drones, but the Federal Police at the other German borders do not yet (PP Niederbayern).
