Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) spoke out against identity checks at the German-Czech border on Friday. She spent an hour finding out about the police and customs work on the border between Saxony and the Czech Republic and, together with her Czech colleague Vit Rakusan, also rejected the reintroduction of identity checks. The conservative Rakusan also rejected controls as an “extreme solution”. Faeser and Rakusan spoke out in favor of a common European asylum policy.
Saxony and Brandenburg had previously campaigned for border controls. However, they would be a “big obstacle” for commuters, nursing staff, craftsmen and commercial companies, said Interior Minister Faeser. In the fight against people smugglers and irregular migration, Germany is relying on more people being searched for with veils.
Fight against people smugglers: veil search instead of controls
According to Faeser, the border police in Saxony have been reinforced by hundreds of federal riot police. “This shows that we are acting exactly as the current situation requires.” The meeting took place in the joint center of German-Czech police and customs cooperation in Petrovice-Schwandorf near Bad Gottleuba. Since 2007, police officers from Saxony and Bavaria have been investigating drug and smuggling crimes with the federal police and customs from there and checking people and vehicles across borders.