German Greens in the Bundestag Criticize Inadequate Information on Border Controls
The German Green party in the Bundestag has accused the federal interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, of an inadequate information policy regarding the intensified border controls and has demanded greater transparency from the federal government.
Irene Mihalic, the first parliamentary manager of the Green party’s faction, expressed her concerns in an interview with the Funke-Mediengruppe, stating, “It cannot be that measures with enormous effects are issued without being able to track their consequences.” She further criticized the government, saying, “It is indeed the impression that the political leadership of the interior ministry is aware that its border policy is dilettantish and doomed to fail.”
According to Mihalic, the government is deliberately trying to conceal the effects of its policies and make them unmeasurable, rather than making them transparent and quantifiable.
The controversy surrounds the new policy of the interior minister, who on May 7th explicitly allowed the rejection of asylum seekers at Germany’s borders. The federal police are also turning back people who claim asylum, a practice that was previously rejected by previous governments, citing European law. This law obliges member states to at least examine which country is responsible for the asylum procedure. At the same time, the interior minister has deployed thousands of additional federal police officers to the German borders to intensify the controls.