The number of unauthorised entries into Germany via Switzerland increased more than fivefold last year. Between the first and second half of 2022 the figure rose from 1,610 to 8,862, the German newspaper Bild reported on Tuesday. Bild referred to a response from the German interior ministry to a query from the right-wing AfD party. The head of the German Federal Police Union, Heiko Teggatz, said the figures were unsurprising. “Turning people back, like [Germany can do] at the Austrian border, is not possible at the Swiss border,” he told the newspaper. “The [German] interior ministry still refuses to register border controls with Switzerland with the EU and thus deliberately shifts responsibility to the states and municipalities.” The southwest state of Baden-Württemberg is particularly affected by irregular migration via Switzerland. Hans-Ulrich Rülke, leader of the Free Democratic Party in Baden-Württemberg, has therefore called for increased border controls – even on the...
