Germany extends border controls with Switzerland again

The border between Switzerland and Germany at Kreuzlingen/Konstanz Keystone / Ennio Leanza

Berlin is extending border controls with Switzerland. The decision was made last Monday at a meeting between Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the minister presidents of the federal states, the German authorities told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA.

Berlin wants to use the border controls to combat irregular immigration and people smuggling, according to a statement on Monday.

Berlin had already announced stationary controls at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland for ten days in mid-October and then extended them by 20 days at the end of October. These internal border controls will now be maintained, according to last week’s decision.

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However, it is not known whether the border controls have actually worked. In response to an enquiry from Keystone-SDA, the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees wrote: “The Federal Office does not have any statistical analyses on this.”

Switzerland has “expressed its regret about the reintroduction of internal border controls in its contacts with Germany”, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) said.

Little impact on traffic

However, the controls carried out by Germany to date have had “only a marginal impact” on road traffic, the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security said.

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At the Basel/Weil am Rhein motorway, Rheinfelden motorway and Kreuzlingen border crossings, there have been isolated cases of congestion and waiting times when leaving for Germany.

However, according to the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security, congestion at busy border crossings also occurred before the current control regime of the German authorities. “It is not always clear what a traffic jam is due to,” it said.

According to the SEM, a meeting at state secretary level with Austria, Germany and France is planned for the end of November to discuss the challenges in the area of secondary migration. “The reintroduction of internal border controls will also be addressed.”

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