Germany’s Imposition of Old-Fashioned Border Checks Begets an Uproar Over Europe’s Migrant Crisis

ATHENS — If Poland’s recent alarum over Germany’s announcement that it will start new checks at its border crossings strikes some as slightly off key, Greece in a roundabout way has just offered a clue why. It comes as more politicians from Germany’s increasingly pressured center sound off in frustration with years of failed liberal policies on immigration and asylum for refugees. This is all happening at a rapid clip ahead of two key events. One is the introduction of border checks, beginning Monday, at all of Germany’s land borders. Two is elections in the eastern state of Brandenburg, which will take place the following week. On Thursday the head of the Christian Social Union party, Markus Söder, said that migration is “growing beyond our control” and that “in many German cities, Germans no longer feel at home.”That prompted the migration commissioner, Reem Alabali-Radovan, to accuse Mr. Söder of adopting the language of the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland party — more on that in a minute. Europe is having a conniption fit over Germany’s fiddling with the Schengen area conventions on passport-free travel, but it is not out of any great love for refugees of distant provenance. It is because of what might happen when Germany starts sends them packing — in other countries, there is no room at, so to speak, the inn.. Part of Germany’s new strategy to bring some measure of control to the migrant crisis involves plans to deport refugees who either have or have not received asylum to countries of first reception, such as Greece, Italy, and conceivably even Poland. Speaking at Vienna on Wednesday, Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, made it clear that Athens will draw a line if need be.“What a country like Greece certainly cannot accept is to shoulder a disproportionately large burden simply because of its geographical specificity, due to the fact that it is on the external borders of the European Union,” Mr. Mitsotakis said. That remark was intended for German ears, as was this: “One cannot demand that Greece have a more favorable social protection framework for refugees than it has for Greek citizens themselves.”Countries on Europe’s southern periphery like Greece, Italy, and Spain are on the frontlines of the immigration crisis. Migrant movements through the middle of the Mediterranean are at record levels, and while Italy has had considerable success in managing the flows recently, the situation in, more broadly, is volatile.Greece also has a challenging land border of its own with which to contend: the short northern one with Turkey. Austria is one of the few countries that has lent Greece material support as it copes with periodic breaches of the natural border formed by the Evros River. Mr. Mitsotakis seeks additional EU funding for the construction of a modern fence along that border. In any case, Mr. Mitsotakis has voiced the sentiment that his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, and other European leaders likely harbor. When the Greek said in Austria that “it would not be right to move towards an ad hoc logic of Schengen exemptions,” it was a polite way of warning Berlin, “not in our back yard, danke.”Uncoordinated maneuvers on border crossings by individual European countries like Germany — in other words, automatic deportations — will almost certainly lead to some migrants being stranded in the countries like Greece that they got to first.The scenario is not at all far-fetched, and will likely be a topic of discussion next week when the Greek minister of immigration, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, travels to Berlin for a conference on security and immigration which Germany’s interior minister Nancy Faeser will also attend.In the meantime, the Greek press reported Friday that Mr. Mitsotakis has an open line of communication with Mr. Tusk as well as Prime Minister Meloni. All of this is happening behind the scenes, with Brussels for now relegated to the sidelines.Also looming are elections in Brandenburg, where the Social Democrats are now trailing the AfD in polls. After the rightist party’s recent victory in Thuringia and strong second-place showing in Lower Saxony, this means a showdown is looming between the AfD and the three-party coalition that currently governs Germany. One thing that Chancellor Scholz will want to avoid before Brandenburgers vote is looking weak on immigration. So the more he digs in, expect that hackles across the EU will be raised even higher.

Germany’s Imposition of Old-Fashioned Border Checks Begets an Uproar Over Europe’s Migrant Crisis

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