BERLIN – Germany will extend temporary border controls beyond the current September 15 deadline as part of a broader crackdown on irregular immigration, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt announced Thursday.
Speaking in a podcast with Table.Today, Dobrindt also revealed plans to increase deportations of rejected asylum seekers with criminal records — including to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and war-torn Syria.
“We will continue to maintain the border controls,” Dobrindt said, referring to measures initially introduced under former Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s administration and extended for six months in March. “We are in agreement with our European partners that this is a necessary measure until the [EU] external border protection system is fully operational.”
Under Schengen rules, European countries can temporarily reintroduce internal border checks for up to two years in cases of serious threats such as terrorism or mass irregular migration.
The policy is part of a broader agenda led by Germany’s conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has vowed to stem unauthorized migration in order to curb growing support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The AfD surged to a record 20 percent in February’s election, fueled by rising public anxiety over crime and recent deadly attacks linked to foreign nationals.
The Merz government further intensified border enforcement after taking office in May, deploying an additional 3,000 federal police officers — bringing the total to 14,000. It also adopted stricter policies to reject most new asylum seekers at the border, drawing criticism from human rights organizations.
Between May 8 and July 31, German authorities turned back 9,254 individuals at land borders, according to Interior Ministry data. The largest number of rejected entrants came from Afghanistan, followed by Algeria, Eritrea, and Somalia. Germany’s border with France accounted for the highest number of rejections (over 2,000), followed by Poland, Switzerland, and Austria.
Berlin has also resumed deportations to Afghanistan for convicted offenders, a move paused since the Taliban takeover in 2021. Last month, 81 Afghan nationals with criminal records were repatriated — an action Dobrindt insisted “cannot remain a one-off measure.”
The Interior Minister said the government was working on organizing similar deportation flights to Syria, where the Islamist-led coalition toppled President Bashar Assad in December.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, condemned the renewed deportations. “The situation in Afghanistan remains catastrophic,” the group stated, citing widespread reports of “extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, and torture.”
Despite international concerns, Berlin appears determined to maintain a hardline stance on immigration, framing it as essential to national security and public order.
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