Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) today agreed with the head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police, Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter, on a joint action plan to intensify border police and migration policy cooperation.
The background is the number of unauthorized entries via Switzerland towards Germany, which has been increasing for months. As early as 2016, Germany and Switzerland successfully supported each other in overcoming the migration crisis as part of a joint action plan.
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser: “We rely on close cooperation with our neighboring countries such as Switzerland. We want open borders between Germany and Switzerland for our citizens and for commercial traffic. The German-Swiss border region has always had close economic and cultural ties. At the same time, we retain control over migration movements. In doing so, we want to avoid serious measures such as the temporary reintroduction of border controls. With our joint action plan, we are therefore taking measures with which we will advance registration and repatriation in particular.“
Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter: „We both want to prevent migrants without protection requirements from overloading our asylum systems. To this end, we are committed to ensuring that people who do not need protection are quickly expelled and consistently returned. To this end, we register all asylum seekers immediately and give priority to and expedite asylum procedures for nationals with a low recognition rate, for example in the Maghreb countries.”
The Federal Police identified almost 1,000 unauthorized entries at the German-Swiss border in September and almost 2,400 in October 2022. The average for the past few months was in the lower three-digit range. The majority of migrants use the train as a mode of transport for illegal entry.
In addition to border police measures in the common border area and on trains, the action plan also includes migration law measures (including registration, security checks, Dublin cooperation, repatriation) and migration policy measures such as cooperation with the countries of the Western Balkans and increased cooperation with countries of origin and transit. The implementation of the measures of the joint action plan will start immediately.
