There is evidence that nationals from third countries use the route via Ukraine in order to reach Germany via Poland, for example. For the head of the German Police Union (DPolG) it is clear what hour it has struck. “Effective border controls” are finally needed. “We must ensure that these people are identified in order to determine and record their residence status so that subsequent measures to end their stay do not come to nothing.”
Europe is still struggling with the consequences of the last wave of refugees. In an interview with “Focus”, Wendt says: “In the past few years, we have seen again and again that individuals who have come to our country as refugees have committed serious crimes and even terrorist attacks.” But he does not want the people under general suspicion place. To avoid having to do this, however, citizens would have to be able to rely on the state.
The German authorities have registered 225,000 people in Ukraine since the beginning of the war. But because the police are not allowed to carry out fixed checks, the true number is probably much higher. At this point, one has to assume that those who are up to no good avoid official registration in particular. Wendt says a sentence that could have come straight from 2015: “We very often do not know who is coming to the country, which worries many people.”
The President of the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, also blows this horn. “Despite all the help, compassion and humanity in the current situation, we must not lose sight of the security of our citizens and our nations,” he warned in the “Handelsblatt”. Of course, the danger does not come from the Ukrainians. Instead, Islamist terrorist groups, for example, could abuse the lack of border controls to smuggle potential attackers into Europe unchecked.