Migration expert questions effectiveness of German border controls

Migration researcher Gerald Knaus does not expect that expanding controls to all German land borders will lead to a significant decrease in the number of asylum seekers in the Federal Republic.

“Anyone who expects border controls to lead to a decrease in irregular migration is raising expectations that cannot be met,” the Austrian, who was involved in the EU-Turkey refugee deal initiative, told Deutschlandfunk.

The reason is the extension of existing selective controls to the borders with Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark on Monday. Many EU countries have had border controls for a very long time as an exception to the rules of the Schengen Area, which is essentially free of border controls, such as Austria and France.

“The number of asylum applications has not decreased at all”

But Knaus explained that “this has not reduced the number of asylum applications at all.” Border controls are also not a means of preventing Islamist terrorism, since many perpetrators are only radicalized in Germany.

According to him, this will only be possible with radical measures such as the complete end of free travel and movement of goods between EU member states in the corresponding Schengen Agreement. “If the idea is actually to stop all forms of irregular migration at the German border: This can only be done permanently with the end of the Schengen Agreement. And for this you also need a fence on the green border.

“I fear that the whole approach to preventing irregular migration within the EU will fail to move forward. It has always failed so far,” Knaus said. An EU-wide approach is needed: “We have to reduce irregular migration into the EU, and we need to discuss this.”