Latest news with #Rosskopf
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
German police fear legal consequences over pushbacks at border
German police have said they are concerned that border officers might face legal problems after a court blocked the government's efforts to turn away asylum seekers at the country's borders. Shortly after taking office last month, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt ordered police to step up border checks and turn back irregular migrants, even if they apply for asylum. In the first case to emerge over the controversial move, the Berlin Administrative Court ruled on Monday in favour of three Somalis who were turned back to Poland on May 9, stating that they should have been processed under the European Union's Dublin Regulation for asylum cases. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has defended the policy in light of the ruling. But the chairman of the GdP police union, Andreas Rosskopf, on Wednesday said he was worried about what consequences the court decision would have for officers who continue to turn back people at the border. "Of course, it is an individual case decision for now, but it remains to be said that these are cases that we face every day and therefore there is now a certain amount of uncertainty among colleagues," he told public broadcaster WDR. Police officers are ultimately responsible for their own actions and must answer for them, the union chief noted. Dobrindt had dismissed concerns that officers could be prosecuted for their actions as "completely absured" in earlier comments to public broadcaster ARD. But Rosskopf said he "actually had to disagree to a certain extent." While the minister was right in arguing that police officers were subject to clear instructions in the matter, Rosskopf said: "If it were clear and is clear that this instruction is ultimately unlawful, then police officers must fulfil so-called remonstration duties," meaning they would have to explicitly criticize the order in order to avoid legal responsibility. "We need a written clarification that colleagues are clearly acting on instructions in this uncertain situation and cannot be held personally liable for their actions following legal proceedings in this matter," the union boss explained.
The Star
19-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Germany's tougher border controls show early impact, but raise sustainability concerns
BERLIN, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Amid growing migration pressures, Germany's recently intensified border controls and increased asylum rejections are beginning to yield results. Even as the Federal Ministry of the Interior showed no signs of rolling back, the police union warned on Monday that the measures are not sustainable in the long run. Shortly after taking office, Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt ordered a sharp increase in border checks and authorized the rejection of asylum seekers directly at entry points. Within a week, the number of rejections rose by nearly 50 percent, according to the minister. However, the police union has raised alarms over the strain on federal police forces. Andreas Rosskopf, chairman of the German Police Union was quoted by the Funke Media Group as saying Monday that the current level of control is only feasible due to extraordinary measures such as restructured duty rosters, suspended training, and halted overtime leave. "The police can only maintain the intensive controls for a few more weeks," Rosskopf warned. More than 1,000 riot police officers have been deployed in border regions over recent days. Rosskopf noted concerns from within the security services about long-term staffing, including whether federal police can continue supporting state authorities as before, such as during football matches and demonstrations. Criticism has also emerged at the European level. Katarina Barley, vice president of the European Parliament, has described the early impact of the controls as "very limited" and instead recommended covert, random identity checks as a more sustainable solution. "The Schengen Area is one of Europe's greatest achievements," she emphasized.
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
German borders to be tightened immediately by incoming minister
Incoming German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt plans to order increased rejections of migrants and more frequent checks at Germany's external borders a day after he assumes office with the new coalition government later this week. "The first decisions will be made after taking office this Wednesday. This will include ramping up border controls and increasing rejections," Dobrindt of the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union (CSU) told Sunday's edition of the mass-circulation Bild newspaper. There will be no border closures, the conservative politician said. "The numbers of illegal migration must come down. To achieve both humanity and order, control, clarity and consistency are needed. We are preparing national and European decisions for this," Dobrindt further stated. Observers expect that at least temporarily, more federal police officers will be sent to the border. However, what else might change remains unclear. The German Police Union (GdP) reacted sceptically to Dobrindt's announcement. The GdP is also in favour of measures to curb irregular migration, said Andreas Rosskopf, chairman of the GdP for Federal Police and Customs. However, a significant increase in the number of police officers at the border cannot be sustained permanently with the current staffing levels, he added. The union representative also expressed doubts about the announcements from conservative politicians to turn back asylum seekers at Germany's land borders without the consent of neighbouring countries like Poland or Austria. "There must be no ping-pong game with neighbouring countries from Wednesday," warned Rosskopf. "If we are to turn back asylum seekers, it must be legally secure - and so far, I am missing the answer to that," Rosskopf said. On Tuesday, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz is to be elected chancellor in the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag. The new government is made up of Merz's CDU, its sister party the CSU and the Social Democrats (SPD). The future head of the chancellor's office, Thorsten Frei of the CDU, recently announced stricter border checks from the first day of the new government - albeit with a time limit. Initially, there were hardly any supporters of fixed border checks in the outgoing centre-left coalition, as these are not permitted in the visa-free Schengen Area of which Germany is a part. Nevertheless, then interior minister Nancy Faeser of the SPD not only repeatedly extended the checks at the land border with Austria that began in 2015, she also ordered such temporary checks in mid-October 2023 for the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland and notified the European Commission of the move. Last September, she then decided that such checks should also be in place at the remaining border sections. Last year, 229,751 people applied for asylum in Germany for the first time. This was about 100,000 fewer initial asylum applications than the previous year. The main countries of origin currently include Syria, Afghanistan, and Turkey. A major reason for the decline, according to the head of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Hans-Eckhard Sommer, is that Serbia effectively closed the refugee route to Hungary in November 2023. Whether this will remain the case permanently is uncertain, Sommer said in a speech at the end of March. In the coalition agreement, CDU/CSU and SPD have agreed: "We will carry out rejections at the common borders in coordination with our European neighbours, even in the case of asylum applications." However, it remains unresolved between the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the centre-left SPD whether "in coordination" means obtaining the neighbours' consent or merely consulting them.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
German police union calls for weapons ban on all public transport
A major German police union has called for a countrywide ban on the carrying of weapons in public transport and related facilities, including all railway stations. Andreas Rosskopf, head of the GdP union's federal police section, complained that there was currently a patchwork of regulations across the country's 16 federal states. A national ban is already in place on long-distance trains. "People often don't know themselves whether there is a banned zone at a particular station or not," Rosskopf told dpa. Berlin's state government recently backed a ban on firearms and knives in all the capital's commuter transport. A complete ban is in place in certain states, while others are considering taking similar measures. The large southern state of Bavaria has taken a contrary position, calling for the decision to be left to regions and local authorities. The GdP is calling for agreement on a common policy by the interior ministers of all the states, who regularly meet along with their federal counterparts.
