The number of migrants “illegally” entering Germany has dropped by over 100,000 in the past two years, according to German police figures.According to the figures, seen by German broadsheet newspaper Die Welt, 22,170 “illegal entries” into Germany have been recorded so far in 2025, down from 83,572 in the same period in 2024 and 127,549 in 2023.The figures come as Germany’s new interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, has pushed for increased border checks in his first week in office, instructing police last week to turn back asylum-seekers with the exception of particularly vulnerable people such as pregnant women and children.Interior Ministry says border checks are ‘working’On Thursday, Dobrindt, of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), visited a border crossing in the town of Kiefersfelden on the Austrian border alongside Bavarian Premier Markus Söder of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU’s Bavarian sister party.Speaking to reporters, the pair said that some 729 attempts to illegally enter Germany had been thwarted in the last seven days, with Dobrindt insisting: “The new border checks are working.”Speaking in parliament to introduce his ministry’s plans to lawmakers on Friday, Dobrindt said that “the integration capabilities of a country have their limits when it comes to illegal migration. Citizens expect a political change from us and this change has begun on Germany’s borders.”Addressing the CDU’s junior coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), he said: “I know that this is a bigger leap for you than it is for us. But let’s complete this task together.”He insisted that Germany remains a “tolerant country” which is “open to legal migration into our job market and society.”Poll: AfD voters unconvincedAccording to a YouGov poll carried out on behalf of the Süddeutsche Zeitung broadsheet on Friday, 68% of the CDU’s own voters welcome the measures and think they will reduce irregular immigration.However, if Dobrindt and the CDU were hoping to win back the support of traditional conservatives who may have voted for the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), they may be disappointed, with 63% of AfD voters unconvinced that the measures will have any effect.AfD lawmaker Gottfried Curio told parliament on Friday that the measures don’t go far enough, calling on the government to deport all those who have illegally entered Germany and criticizing that too many vulnerable groups are exempt from the measures.The AfD, which has been classified, pending an appeal, as right-wing “extremist” by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, has used migration to boost its political fortunes. Migration plan meets political oppositionCriticism also came from the left-hand side of the political spectrum, with Germany’s Left Party (Die Linke) questioning the legality of Dobrindt’s measures.“They encourage a practice which is beyond the law,” said lawmaker Clara Bünger, warning that the rejection of asylum applications could lead to a “spiral of deprivation of rights and isolation.”Germany’s Green Party has warned of the effects of Dobrindt’s measures on police officers, both in terms of their capacities and legality.“In three weeks at the latest, the massive strain on personnel will effectively end these measures,” criticized the Greens’ parliamentary leader Konstantin von Notz.Meanwhile, Greens in the European Parliament have suggested there could be legal consequences for individual police officers who turn back asylum-seekers at the border.“Police officers are making themselves liable to prosecution for Dobrindt’s immigration drama,” Green MEP Erik Marquardt told Focus news magazine, claiming that the tightened border checks don’t have “any legal footing.”German police welcome measuresNevertheless, the deputy chairman of the German Police Union (DPolG), Manuel Ostermann, welcomed the measures and called for a return to immigration levels of pre-2012.“The border checks and the firm application of national law are a success, reducing the pressure of immigration which has long been overwhelming Germany,” he told Welt, adding:“A domino effect is taking place whereby asylum applications are once again taking place where they legally should do: on the European Union’s external borders.”
