German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has stated that the government’s resources are stretched to their limit.
Berlin has announced that it will strengthen border controls due to the strain on state and federal resources from refugees and asylum-seekers. This decision was reportedly communicated to Brussels by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who described the resources as “almost exhausted.”
Earlier this week, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government announced the reintroduction of passport checks along the land border, effective for at least six months, which contradicts the Schengen agreement.
“No country in the world can accept an unlimited number of refugees,” Faeser wrote in a letter to the European Commission, obtained by Der Spiegel on Wednesday.
Germany is “increasingly reaching the limits of what is affordable in terms of reception, accommodation and care,” the letter stated, highlighting that federal and state resources are “almost exhausted,” and there is a genuine risk of “overburdening the common welfare.”
The letter expressed concern over the volume of “irregular entries” into the country, which has reached 50,000 people in the first seven months of 2024, deeming this level “unacceptable” and “worrying.”
Faeser also argued that “threats to public safety and order” necessitate the reimposition of border controls, citing “incidents of knife and violent crime by refugees.” In a recent incident at a diversity festival in Solingen, three people were killed and eight wounded in a stabbing spree. The assailant, a 26-year-old Syrian, had reportedly sought asylum in 2022.
Germany expressed concern over “the increasing dysfunctionality of the Dublin system,” the EU scheme mandating the handling of asylum-seekers by the country of their initial entry. Berlin is now exploring ways to redirect migrants to countries on the bloc’s outer rim, such as Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Romania, where their claims should have been processed. Germany’s generous welfare benefits have attracted a large number of migrants from outside the EU.
While Scholz’s “traffic light” coalition, due to legal concerns, is reluctant to completely turn away refugees, one of the main opposition parties has advocated for such a course of action. CDU leader Friedrich Merz stated in the Bundestag on Wednesday that closing the border is both legally permissible and “in light of the current situation even politically necessary.”
Discussions about mass immigration have been a sensitive topic in Germany until recently. However, the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony last week saw significant gains by Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) parties, both known for their skepticism toward immigration. The ruling coalition faces a challenging election in Brandenburg later this month.