German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended the country’s planned expansion of border controls during his address to the public at a citizens’ dialogue on Saturday.
“Irregular migration is not what we want,” Scholz told the gathering in Prenzlau, Brandenburg. If, as last year, 300,000 people came to Germany, only a few of whom were entitled to protection, “that is not good,” he said.
Therefore, a closer look must be taken at who has the right to enter, “because unfortunately we cannot fully trust that all our neighbours will do what they are supposed to do,” Scholz said.
Germany is a member of the Schengen area, which allows approximately 420 million people to travel freely without border controls in 29 European countries.
But there are already checks at some of Germany’s nine borders, including with Poland. Scholz’s comments come as Germany expands checks at its borders with Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark on Monday.
Scholz stressed that the border controls, which were initially scheduled to last six months, would be carried out in accordance with European law.
They were ordered by German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in an attempt to more effectively curb the number of unauthorised entries. While the moves have been criticised by Germany’s neighbours, Berlin has pointed to security risks posed by irregular migration and smuggling activities at the EU’s external borders.
