Germany imposes border controls

GERMANY, only days ago the symbol of European openness in the face of large-scale refugee flows, has reintroduced border controls to “decelerate” the influx of people and restore some semblance of order to their registration. On September 13th Thomas de Maizière, the interior minister, explained Germany’s stunning policy, after giving the order to interrupt train connections between Germany and Austria and to begin spot checks on car traffic across the German-Austrian border.

In effect, Germany is imposing sharp limits on asylum seekers only a week after it had appeared to throw its borders wide open. In the first weekend of September, Angela Merkel, the chancellor, unexpectedly allowed trains to carry refugees from Hungary, where they were stranded, through Austria to Bavaria. More than 20,000 arrived in Munich in that weekend alone. Many were greeted enthusiastically by ordinary Germans eager to help those in need. But Mrs Merkel quickly explained that this was only an “exception” to the existing rules, whereby refugees must in theory apply for EU asylum in the first member state they enter.