That's how much Germany spends on border checks. They were expected to be temporary

natemat.pl 1 month ago

Border checks cost Germany tens of millions of euros. Paying overtime is peculiarly high.

September 2024 to June this year. Germany spent EUR 80.5 million on border controls. This follows from the consequence of the German Ministry of the Interior to the written question by Ms Clary Bünger.

In mid-September last year Germany expanded controls to all land borders, and since autumn 2023 it has already controlled the border with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. In the autumn of 2015, due to the migration crisis, the border with Austria began to be controlled.

The quarterly costs of deploying national police (in Germany it is liable for border controls) at interior borders ranged from €24 to €29.1 million, according to data from the Ministry of Interior.

Most for overtime

The most costly were overtime. From mid-September last year until the end of June this year, EUR 37.9 million were spent on them.

From April to June this year, the German government spent EUR 8 million on the meals and lodging of officers, and little than EUR 3 million was spent on allowances for "work in inadequate hours".

Expenditure of 2.6 million afraid "command and operational resources" and nearly €2 million was allocated to the operation of border points.

They were expected to be temporary.

The border checks introduced by Germany were to be only temporary exceptions. However, they have been extended respective times. The justification was to reduce illegal migration and to defend against muslim terrorists and cross-border crime.

The fresh Minister of the Interior of Germany Alexander Dobrindt, shortly after Friedrich Merz's reign in early May this year, stepped up his checks and last week announced their extension after September. The German border services are inactive to refuse (with respective exceptions) access to Germany to asylum seekers.

Left Party: "unlawful"

According to a answer from the Ministry of Interior, national police officers returned from 8 May to 4 August at the borders a full of 493 people, despite seeking asylum.

Party MP Left Clara Bünger called specified actions of the government "an illegal border closing policy". Bünger told the Funke media group newspapers that this impedes the escape of asylum seekers, leads to communication chaos in border regions, burdens commuters to work abroad and generates immense costs. The messenger called for immediate termination of border controls.