ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Germany is located in the heart of Europe's Schengen Area, a border-free zone that typically guarantees the free movement of more than 425 million Europeans. But German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says so many migrants who don't have legal status in Germany are now arriving each year that introducing checks inside this typically open border area is necessary.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NANCY FAESER: (Speaking German).
SCHMITZ: "Until the EU is able to bolster its external borders under the new Common European Asylum System," said Faeser, "we must strengthen our national borders." Faeser said Germany has already rejected more than 30,000 people at its borders over the past year. Still, there have been problems deporting migrants who don't legally reside in the country.
Last month, a Syrian migrant who should have been deported two years ago killed three people and injured eight others in a knife attack at a festival in the city of Solingen. Elections in the German states of Saxony and Thuringen soon after the attack delivered an electoral boost to the right-wing nationalist AfD Party, which campaigns on tougher immigration policy.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ALICE WEIDEL: (Speaking German).
SCHMITZ: This week, the co-chair of the AfD, Alice Weidel, said that her party wants to put a stop to the, quote, "murders, rapes and stabbings" on German streets. That is why, she said, Germany needs a new immigration policy that voters will not get from other parties. Weidel is partly in campaign mode. On September 22, the German state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, will hold its election, and the AfD is leading in the polls. Germany's tighter border controls go into effect next Monday.
Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Berlin. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.