Why has Germany tightened its borders?

Germany's government has announced temporary controls at all of the country's land borders. From Berlin, CGTN Europe’s Trent Murray explains more.

Transcript

00:00From next Monday, the 16th of September, there will be a significant increase in the number

00:05of police doing checks along all of Germany's land border crossings with its neighbours.

00:11That is after the government here made a major announcement on Monday that it was implementing

00:16the strict new border rules in order to try and combat what it describes as irregular

00:21migration.

00:22They say they're also doing this for national security reasons.

00:26Of course it comes as Germany finds itself right in the middle of the Schengen zone.

00:31Normally free movement is a real feature of this part of Europe, but right now that looks

00:36like it will change with these new regulations.

00:39Now Berlin is saying it has consulted Brussels to make sure this is all compliant with EU

00:45law, but already some of Germany's neighbours, including Austria, have signalled they won't

00:50be accepting anyone being turned back at the German border.