Police patrolling Germany’s borders detected 6,889 attempted unauthorized entries in October, Germany’s Federal Police said in a press release on Friday.
The figure is very similar to the number of people stopped in September. From March to August, the number was between 7,000 and 7,800 each month, according to the Federal Police, and lower in January (6,906) and February (5,998).
Whether the decline in the past two months has anything to do with the Germany Interior Ministry’s decision to expand border checks to all of Germany’s land borders in mid-September to limit irregular migration remains to be seen.
Police had previously been conducting checks along Germany’s borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland, officially on a temporary basis. The checks at the land borders with Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are new.
Germany and all of its neighbours are members of the Schengen Area, which normally means people can cross borders without any need for visas or checks. Schengen rules allow countries to reinstitute checks on a temporary basis.
The German border controls are limited to six months, but can be renewed. Controls along Germany’s border with Austria, for example, were first instituted on a temporary basis in 2015 but have remained continuously in place since then.
According to a statement, the Federal Police have registered a total of 71,181 people crossing the border illegally so far this year. In the same period last year, there were 112,201 people.
People attempting to enter the country without permission are generally sent back, although if they claim asylum then they can remain in Germany until their case is decided. Asylum seekers are generally taken to a reception facility.
