Germany tightens controls at all borders

Germany's government has announced a new six-month tightening of border checks will come in from the start of next week, in the aftermath of an attack in the town of Solingen in August that left three people dead, for which the Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility.

The suspect detained is a Syrian national who had failed in his asylum application and was awaiting deportation from Germany.

Shortly after the incident, the far-right Alternative for Deutschland party, or AfD, enjoyed its biggest success yet in local elections.

Germany shares more than 3,700 kilometers of land borders with Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland, all of which are members of the Schengen Zone, within which free movement is usually permitted, with no restrictions.

An increase in first-time asylum requests last year meant that Germany had already imposed some level of checks at the frontiers with Austria, Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland, but these are now being extended nationwide.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser insisted the government was "taking a hard line" against irregular migration to reduce cross-border crime. "We are doing everything in our power to protect the people of our country against these threats," she added.

Public concern

In recent years, Germany has welcomed huge numbers of people fleeing conflict, but the AfD campaigned heavily on the issue in the recent election and had success, so politicians are aware it is becoming an increasingly significant public concern.

Members of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition government have already held talks with center-right opposition groups about a new approach to the issue of migration in the aftermath of the Solingen attacks, and Friedrich Merz, leader of the mainstream conservative Christian Democratic Union party, said migration in general needed to be tightened up.

"If the coalition wants to talk to us about the solution, then item one on the agenda must be limiting migration," he said.

Marcus Engler, a researcher from the German Center for Integration and Migration Research, told the Reuters news agency that "the intention of the government seems to be to show symbolically to Germans and potential migrants that the latter are no longer wanted here".