Germany has announced that it will be conducting more random border checks to discourage "secondary migration" in the European Union (EU).
More police officers will be sent to do random border checks in Germany to try to lessen secondary migration, which refers to the illegal movement of non-EU migrants between EU member countries.
The decision of Germany to increase its border security has raised concerns that free movement in the Schengen area, which comprises 26 EU states, is being restricted. The move is part of the country's initiative to tighten its immigration policy, which includes rejecting asylum applications and ramping up deportations.
Horst Seehofer, minister of the interior and member of the center-right Christian Social Union (CSU) party, argued: "Security begins at the border. Alongside the new border control arrangements on the border with Austria, I have instructed officers to step up random police checks on all other German borders."
Eva Hoegl, a lawmaker for the center-left Social Democratic Party, agreed to the need for increased border security and prevention of illegal entries but did not agree with Seehofer's approach, saying: "Europe's open borders are an asset and an accomplishment. It would have been better not to have decided on any sort of border controls unilaterally, but to coordinate with the other European partners and German federal states to find a common approach."
Meanwhile, center-left Green party lawmaker Irene Mihalic criticized the move, saying: "The expanded, permanent internal border controls are a dangerous anti-European signal, which bring the federal police to the limits of their capacity and take them beyond it."
However, Seehofer pointed out that "Border-free travel is one of the greatest accomplishments of the European Union, and a return to a Schengen area without border controls at the internal borders remains our declared goal, but the conditions are not yet in place."
Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and France have suspended the Schengen agreement and started checking documents following the increase of unauthorized entries.
