Germany announces temporary border checks at all land borders

Germany has announced plans for tighter border controls at all nine of the country's land borders in an effort to tackle "irregular migration" and protect the public from what it calls Islamic extremism and other threats.

"We want to further reduce irregular migration. To this end, we are now taking further steps that go beyond the comprehensive measures currently in place," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at a news conference on Monday.

"Until we achieve strong protection of the EU's external borders with the new Common European Asylum System, we need to strengthen controls at our national borders. These controls will also enable effective refoulement," she added, noting that the European Commission and affected countries have been notified.

Temporary border controls will be set up at the land borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark for a period of six months.

It follows after Berlin last year announced similar stricter controls on its borders with Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. The Austria checks are currently in place until November, while the Switzerland, Poland and the Czech Republic measures are in force until December 2024.

Germany said that the temporary border control measures with those four countries will be continued and their scheduling coordinated with the other five.

Europe's Schengen area allows for free travel between member countries, but member states are allowed to introduce border checks if they feel there is a threat to public policy or internal security.

Faeser said that the government has also drawn up a framework to allow authorities to turn away more migrants directly at the border, but did not give any details about how it would work.

She said