Agency Report –
The first asylum-seekers have been turned away from Germany under stricter border controls established this week by the country’s new conservative-led government.
Four Afghan nationals who entered the country from Luxembourg were turned away on Thursday, according to Stefan Döhn, spokesman for the federal police in the western city of Trier.
The two women and two men had previously applied for asylum in Greece and were approached by officers at Trier’s main railway station during an inspection of a coach.
They were subsequently turned back in consultation with the police in Luxembourg, Döhn told dpa.
The four did not belong to vulnerable categories that are exempt from the new measures, including pregnant women and children.
Stricter border controls were introduced on the orders of newly appointed Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt after Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government took office on Tuesday.
Checks have been intensified at the borders with Luxembourg and Belgium, said Döhn. Further personnel reinforcements are expected in the coming days.
The Trier Federal Police currently has two stationary checkpoints: one on the A64 for traffic entering Germany from Luxembourg and a second on the border with Belgium.
According to the spokesman, there are also regular checks at other points along the outlying 30-kilometer section of the border.
There are a total of 36 border crossings to Luxembourg and Belgium in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate where Trier is located.
