German media reported that the number of people entering Germany through illegal border crossings, in search of a safe haven and a new chance at life, last month set a new record for this year.
The Welt newspaper said that police arrested 15,100 immigrants who entered Germany illegally last August.
This number represents a 40% increase over the month of July, when 10,714 people were recorded entering through smuggling routes into Germany, according to the “Amal, Berlin!” website.
According to Welt, about 500 people enter illegally across the German border every day.
Figures indicate that during the first eight months of 2023, more than 71,000 people entered the country, and this figure is close to the total number compared to 2022.
Critics, including the head of the German Federal Police Association, Heiko Teggatz, accuse the government of negligence, demand constant border control, and place responsibility for what is happening on the shoulders of Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
For his part, Sebastian Hartmann, an expert in internal policy affairs from the Social Democratic Party, criticized the calls aimed at adopting isolation policies at the local level and tightening controls on the external borders of the European Union, stressing that this would not represent a real solution to the dilemma.
While the Green Party stressed that going beyond human rights standards in order to restrict immigration cannot be considered an acceptable solution.
