While Germany’s neighbours expressed dismay at Berlin’s decision to reimpose border controls, Hungary’s anti-immigration PM gleefully tweeted to the German chancellor: ‘Welcome to the club!’
Donald Tusk has criticised Berlin’s decision to introduce controls on all its borders, arguing that it is “unacceptable” to “de facto suspend Schengen on such a large scale”.
Tusk, who was speaking during a meeting of diplomats on Tuesday in Warsaw, said he would discuss the matter on an EU level with all other countries affected.
Under the Schengen Borders Code, member states and the European Commission are entitled to table a proposal to the Council of the EU to introduce temporary restrictions, including entry, across the passport-free Schengen Area.
Earlier this week, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced that her country would introduce spot controls on all of its borders following a fatal knife attack by a Syrian asylum seeker, who was about to be deported, in the Western town of Solingen. The knife attack, in which three were killed and others were wounded, was later claimed by Islamic State.
Such border controls were already in place with four of Germany’s neighbours – Austria, Poland, Czechia and Switzerland – in a bid to stem the flow of migrants. Entirely new controls will now be introduced on Germany’s borders with France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.
The temporary controls already in place on the border with Austria are due to expire in November, while those with Poland, Czechia and Switzerland were just extended until the end of 2024.
Faeser’s announcement comes amidst intense debates on the matter in Germany, with the government facing pressure to deport illegal immigrants and asylum seekers as soon as possible. In the first half of this year, Germany sent back to Poland over 4,600 migrants who had entered the EU via Poland and then moved onwards to Germany; according to the EU Dublin system, migrants should be processed in the first EU country they enter.
“Such actions are unacceptable from the Polish point of view, because I have no doubt that it is the internal political situation in Germany that is causing these more stringent steps, and not our policy towards illegal migration on our borders,” Tusk said, criticising the border controls and referring to the anti-immigration party AfD winning its first state elections in eastern Germany earlier this month.
“Poland does not need anyone to lecture us on this issue,” Tusk said, meaning illegal immigration. “We have been the most consistent country when it comes to warning against ill-advised decisions concerning Ukraine, Russia and migration policy.”
Poland has built a border wall on its border with Belarus, which is also the eastern border of the EU, and this year it has “prevented” over 24,000 “attempted entries” while accepting only 1,900 asylum applications, according to data provided by the Polish Border Guard to BIRN. In contrast, Germany has accepted 110,000 asylum applications this year alone.
Other countries affected by Germany’s measure also expressed dissatisfaction. Gerhard Karner, Austria’s interior minister, said his country would not take in any asylum seekers rejected by Germany. “There’s no room for manoeuvre there,” Karner told Austrian media.
The nationalist-populist government of Hungary, on the other hand, which takes a much harder line on immigration than other member states, welcomed the announcement from Germany.
“Scholz, Welcome to the club!” Prime Minister Viktor Orban tweeted to the German chancellor on Tuesday.
The same day, the European Commission vowed to use all its powers to prevent Hungary from carrying through with its threat to bus illegal migrants at its borders to Brussels, in a stunt similar to what the US’s border states like Texas have done to highlight the issue of migration. According to the New York Times, in two years Texas has bused more than 119,000 people to Democrat-led cities.
On Friday, Hungary reiterated its threat to flood the EU with illegal migrants unless Brussels withdraws the 200-million-euro fine for failing to comply with EU asylum rules. “If the EU forces us to let in migrants, we will offer them free transport to the EU,” Hungary’s state secretary of the Interior Ministry said.
“In terms of the announcements made by the Hungarian authorities that they would transport irregular migrants from the Hungarian Serbian borders to Brussels, in one word, basically, it is unacceptable,” an EU Commission spokesperson was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
