00:00German police on Tuesday conducted random checks at a border crossing with Austria after
00:06the government in Berlin announced plans to introduce tighter controls at all of its land
00:11borders.
00:12The government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the new restrictions were aimed at tackling
00:16irregular migration and to protect the public from threats such as Islamic extremism.
00:22It's part of a bid by Scholz to undercut the momentum of opposition parties who are riding
00:27a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment as German voters say they are increasingly worried about
00:31what they see as stretched public services, integration and security.
00:37Recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers have stoked concerns over
00:41immigration.
00:43The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the western city of
00:46Zulingen that killed three people in August.
00:50The Alternative for Germany, or AFD, earlier this month became the first far-right party
00:55since the Second World War to win a German state election after campaigning heavily on
00:59the issue of immigration.
01:01The controls could test European unity if they lead to German authorities requesting
01:05other countries to take back substantial numbers of asylum seekers and migrants.
01:10And they are raising fears that some of the most vulnerable in Europe could pay the price
01:13of changing political views.
01:19Wiebke Judith is with the German pro-immigration advocacy organization Pro-Asyl.
01:25She warned of what she called, quote, a perfidious game of ping-pong as asylum seekers are shunted
01:29back and forth between nations within the European Union.
01:36Under EU rules, countries in the Schengen area, which encompass all of the bloc except
01:41Cyprus and Ireland, are only allowed to introduce border checks as a last resort to avert threats
01:46to internal security or public policy.
01:50Germany shares its more than 2,300-mile-long land border with Denmark, the Netherlands,
01:55Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.
02:00Austria's interior minister told a newspaper on Monday that his country would not take
02:04in any migrants turned away by Germany at the border.
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