Germany
'threatens to close borders to refugees' to put pressure on its
neighbours
The
interior minister has apparently ordered officials to draw up plans
to close the borders, according to sources close to Thomas de
Maiziere
By Justin Huggler,
Berlin6:11PM GMT 28 Feb 2016
Germany is
threatening to close its borders to asylum seekers in an attempt to
pressure other governments into doing more to solve the migrant
crisis.
While Angela Merkel,
the German chancellor, insists she wants to keep Europe’s borders
open, plans leaked to German newspaper on Sunday suggest that her
government is drawing up measures to reinstate its own national
controls.
In what Welt am
Sonntag newspaper called a “clear threat to the EU”, sources said
that Germany was considering turning away asylum seekers at the
border.
Such a move could
leave countries that have been critical of Mrs Merkel’s “open-door”
refugee policy struggling to cope with hundreds of thousands of
migrants.
Sources close to
Thomas de Maiziere, the interior minister, told Welt am Sonntag that
he had ordered officials to draw up plans to close the borders.
“For de Maiziere,
the time of waving the refugees through is over,” the sources said.
Sigmar Gabriel,
Germany vice-chancellor, has commissioned a report on the possible
economic consequences of closing Germany’s borders.
In Bavaria, the
state government has ordered police to make preliminary preparations
to reintroduce permanent border controls and start turning away
asylum seekers.
Any closure of
Germany’s borders would have to be approved by Mrs Merkel.
The latest moves
appear to be an attempt to pressure other governments ahead of an
EU-Turkey summit next Monday.
Mr de Maiziere has
decided the summit will be the “turning point”, according to
Welt.
If EU leaders cannot
agree a joint strategy to tackle the crisis at the meeting, Germany
is prepared to take unilateral action.
Mrs Merkel has been
leading negotiations for EU states to take in a fixed quota of Syrian
refugees from Turkey in exchange for Turkish help reducing the flow
of migrants into Europe.
But she has faced
growing opposition from a number of European countries, who say they
will not accept quotas.
Austria and several
eastern European counties have called for Greece’s northern borders
to be closed as an alternative way to stop the influx.
That has left Greece
fearful it will be left to deal with the crisis alone.
Mr de Maiziere’s
move appears to be an attempt to turn the tables on other European
governments, warning that if Germany closes its borders they will be
left to deal with the influx.
Germany is
understood to have drawn up plans to turn asylum seekers away by
enforcing the EU’s Dublin regulations, under which asylum seekers
must register their claim in the first member state they reach.
That could leave
countries across the continent scrambling to send refugees back to
their first point of entry in the EU.
While other
governments have attacked Mrs Merkel’s “open-door” refugee
policy, Germany has long complained that has been left to shoulder
most of the burden alone.
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