The number of border controls conducted by the Federal Police without suspicion has doubled in the past year, according to a recent response from the Federal Government to a Left Party inquiry, reported in the Thursday edition of the taz newspaper. In 2024, a total of 4,746,225 such controls were carried out, compared to 2,426,828 in the previous year.
Under the law, the Federal Police is permitted to conduct these controls to detect and prevent the unauthorized entry of individuals into Germany. The majority of the controls, 4,303,215, were conducted in the context of the Schleierfahndung, a type of border control that is not based on specific suspicion. Nearly half of these controls took place at the border with the Czech Republic, with approximately 2.4 million controls.
However, allegations of racial profiling by the police, in which individuals are stopped and searched solely based on their race, continue to arise in connection with these control measures. The previous government, a coalition of the Social Democratic Party, the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party, had planned to reform the Federal Police Act to address this issue and restrict such controls. The law was, however, not passed in the German parliament.
Left Party member of the Bundestag, Clara Bünger, criticized the figures, stating that they showed that millions of people continued to be suspected and controlled without a legitimate reason. “Nothing has changed in the government’s term of office, the so-called progressive coalition” Bünger said to the taz. “Racist police controls have a stigmatizing effect and often lead to great insecurity for those affected.” Furthermore, they contravene the prohibition of discrimination enshrined in the Basic Law. “This harmful practice must be brought to an end.