There have been around 830,000 police checks at German borders as part of the Euro 2024 championship in the period from June 7 to Thursday.
The head of the Federal Police Headquarters, Dieter Romann, said that 603 outstanding arrest warrants had been executed. This was more than one warrant executed per hour – the offences included homicide and failure to pay maintenance.
Furthermore, 85 people were also apprehended during the border checks for politically motivated crime – including international terrorism, left-wing and right-wing extremism.
According to Romann, 86 violent hooligans were also turned back.
A further 150 smugglers were also temporarily detained and 346 people who had already been deported earlier were turned away.
By Thursday, 3,261 people had been turned back out of 4,659 unauthorized entries that had been detected – all in 21 days, said Romann.
“Every day, 22,000 law enforcement officers from the Federal Police are deployed solely in connection with football,” the president of the Federal Police Headquarters said. They are responsible for checks at all of Germany’s land and sea borders.
Due to the football tournament, temporary checks will initially be in place at all German internal Schengen borders until July 19, which is a few days after the final game on July 14.
At the end of May, Germany’s Interior Ministry announced that the fixed checks at the land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, which have been in place since the beginning of the year, would be extended by six months.
This was justified with the aim of combating smuggling offences and limiting irregular migration.
Courtesy : DPA
