Reports: 'Germany restores border controls'
Photo: DPA
Germany is reinstating controls at its border with Austria as Europe's top economy struggles to cope with a record influx of refugees, according to media reports on Sunday.
Passport checks had
been abolished for countries within Europe's Schengen zone, but the
decision to bring back controls is expected to be announced by Interior
Minister Thomas de Maiziere at a press conference on Sunday evening,
several German media reports said.
Germany has become the destination of choice for migrants, particularly
Syrians, after Chancellor Angela Merkel relaxed asylum rules for
citizens of the war-torn country.
But with 450,000 migrants arriving since the beginning of the year, infrastructure in Germany is being stretched to the limit.
By reinstating controls, Berlin is seeking to buy time to cope with the influx, according to news magazine the Spiegel.
Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt had issued a statement earlier
Sunday saying that "effective measures are necessary now to stop the
influx".
"That includes help for countries from where refugees are fleeing and
also includes an effective control of our own borders which also no
longer works given the EU's complete failure to protect its external
borders," he said.
Source: http://www.thelocal.de/20150913/reports-germany-reinstates-border-controls
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