Germany Estonia's interior minister: German border controls justified

Estonia's Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets considers the German government's decision to temporarily reintroduce controls at all German land borders to be understandable. "In view of the fact that the German authorities identified around 50,000 illegal entrants in the first half of this year alone, we should probably not question this decision," he told Estonian radio on Monday. "This is a reasoned decision by our partner and in line with Schengen law."

Läänemets pointed out that the illegal entrants were mainly Syrian, Afghan and Turkish nationals. In addition, Germany had taken in more than one million war refugees from Ukraine, which was already putting a considerable strain on the country's reception capacity, said the Estonian minister. However, he believes that the decision will have the greatest impact on German citizens who frequently cross the EU's internal borders. He therefore sees no need to react to what has happened, said Läänemets.

Last week, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) had ordered that from Monday there should be stationary controls at all land borders in order to reduce the number of unauthorized entries. The additional controls will initially last for six months.

SDA