Hundreds of Austrian soldiers and police were involved in a border protection exercise that simulated containing migrants amid fears neighboring Germany might begin to turn away new arrivals trying to cross their frontier.

Austrian authorities deployed 600 police, 400 soldiers and two Black Hawk helicopters on Tuesday in an exercise which simulated arrival of hundreds of migrants on the country’s border with Slovenia, local media reported.

"A state that in the worst case cannot protect its borders loses its credibility," Interior Minister Herbert Kickl of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) told reporters, as cited by Reuters. “I am determined that events like those of 2015 must not occur again. And that is exactly the message we want to send from here.”

Migrants seeking to cross the border were portrayed by 200 police cadets. The crowd, that acted peacefully was split by security forces and fed through a system of fences and police barriers. Previous excercises, although smaller in scale, had ‘migrants’ acting violently and arrests.

The exercise was previously announced by Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache – also a member of FPO – who told Germany’s Bild newspaper the drills will mark establishment of a new border police force called ‘Puma’.

“Doing this exercise on the border between Austria and Slovenia, we want to arm ourselves for all developments and send out a clear signal that there will no longer be a loss of control like the one that happened in 2015,” he reiterated.

"The reasons for this are the debate about intra-European border closures, triggered by Germany, as well as current developments on the refugee routes in the Balkans,” Strache said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is currently locked in a struggle with her hardline coalition partners that threaten to start rejecting incoming migrants who already filed for asylum in other EU states.

While a summit between EU leaders on Sunday made little progress on tackling the issue, Austria fears if Germany unilaterally closes its southern border, other EU nations might follow suit.

The exercise took place at Spielfeld, a border crossing furnished with a large crowd management system. The facility, set up in 2016, is said to be able to handle up to 11,000 people per day.

Neighboring Slovenia however said the drill ramped up the risk of another refugee influx. "The exercise is not needed. I see it even as a little provocative," Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar was quoted as saying by national news agency STA, according to Reuters. </s> Austria carries out border exercise as EU states refuse to allow migrant rescue ship to dock

Austria carries out border exercise as EU states refuse to allow migrant rescue ship to dock

Austrian police carry out an exercise at the Spielfeld border crossing, with police cadets as 'migrants'

Hundreds of Austrian police and soldiers have carried out an exercise on the Slovenian border over fears of a repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis.

Two Black Hawk helicopters hovered over the border on Tuesday as police cadets played the role of migrants standing at gates asking to be allowed in.

More than 500 police officers and 220 soldiers took part at the border crossing of Spielfeld as hundreds of migrants crossed the Mediterranean, causing conflict between EU states as each refused to take another boatload in.

"A state which can't protect its borders when needed loses its credibility," said Austrian interior minister Herbert Kickl, who oversaw the exercise along with defence minister Mario Kunasek.

Both politicians are members of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe), which became the junior partner last year in a coalition government under conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

Advertisement

Image: Defence minister Mario Kunasek (L) and interior minister Herbert Kickl in front of soldiers during the operation

It was the first military exercise for the new police border protection force, with 600 officers and dubbed the Puma unit.

The government is at pains to prevent a repetition of the summer of 2015 when several thousand migrants passed through Spielfield as part of the Balkan route towards northern Europe.

Local police said almost no migrants are currently crossing there, but the coalition government fears a domino effect if Germany closes its borders.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing increasing pressure from her conservative allies in Bavaria to turn migrants back at the border, a move which could prompt other states to do the same.

Last week Mr Kurz said it would be a "catastrophe" if the EU did not agree a common position on migration.

The Austrian government's position is in line with Italy, who last week refused to allow a ship of 629 migrants rescued from off the Italian coast to dock, despite asking the ship to pick them up.

Malta also refused to take them and Spain, which was further away, eventually said they would take the migrants who were onboard French aid ship Aquarius.

Aquarius migrants arrive in port of Valencia

A German NGO-operated rescue ship, Lifeline, has now been stuck in international waters near Malta with 234 migrants on board for days as EU countries refuse to offer safe harbour.

On Tuesday afternoon Italy said it would take some of the migrants after reaching a deal with Malta.

Its premier, Giuseppe Conte, said he hoped other EU countries would follow suit.

However, a tweet from the ship itself said they had been refused entry into Maltese waters on Tuesday evening.

The crew said they had been having to rely on media reports as they were not being contacted directly before they were refused entry on Tuesday.

Portugal has offered to take in some migrants, with the centre-left socialist government saying it will know how many if the ship docks in Malta.

Malta's leader Joseph Muscat said EU nations need to share the responsibility "to prevent escalation into humanitarian crisis".

Image: Lifeline is stuck in the Mediterranean with hundreds of migrants onboard

He said he would allow the stranded ship to dock if other EU states agreed to take in some of those onboard, but did not confirm if they had.

Mr Muscat added that Malta plans to investigate Lifeline's captain as it claims he ignored instructions from Italy's rescue command centre.

Spain's prime minister Pedro Sanchez said his country is prepared to be part of a joint European response to the stranded ship but has not specified whether it will allow it to dock or how many migrants it will take.

French President Emmanuel Macron also said France will take in migrants from Lifeline, and insisted that Europe is not in the middle of a migration crisis but a political crisis.

Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte reacted by saying Mr Macron should "open the doors of his own home to the 9,000 migrants France was committed to taking from Italy" under European Union accords to share the numbers of migrants across EU states.

"French arrogance is no longer fashionable in Italy," he added.

Spain's maritime rescue service said it picked up just over 400 people from the Mediterranean on Tuesday as migrants rush to reach Spain from North Africa while the weather remains fair.

Image: Migrants rescued in Mediterranean

That brings the total number of migrants rescued in four days of calm seas to about 1,800.

On Tuesday afternoon Theresa May told the Greek prime minister that Britain is sending an extra border force patrol boat to the Mediterranean to help with the migrant crisis.

Their talks came as authorities in the newly-named Republic of Northern Macedonia said two migrants were killed and six severely injured when a smuggling van carrying 23 people crashed into a barrier on a motorway in the east of the country.

A police spokeswoman said they were all men aged 20-30 from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. </s> Austria deployed police, soldiers and Black Hawk military helicopters yesterday in an exercise overseen by the far-right interior minister which enacted the arrival of hundreds of migrants on its border with Slovenia.

Austria deployed police, soldiers and Black Hawk military helicopters yesterday in an exercise overseen by the far-right interior minister which enacted the arrival of hundreds of migrants on its border with Slovenia.

The drill, designed to show Austria's preparedness for any repeat of Europe's migration crisis, dovetailed with the right-wing government's efforts to discourage migrants from setting off to find a home in central Europe.

Austria took in more than 1pc of its population in asylum seekers during the 2015-2016 migration crisis, and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's conservatives won last year's election pledging to prevent a repeat of that influx. They govern in coalition with the far-right Freedom Party. "A state that in the worst case cannot protect its borders loses its credibility," Interior Minister Herbert Kickl of the Freedom Party said.

"I am determined that events like those of 2015 must not occur again. And that is exactly the message we want to send from here." But neighbouring Slovenia said the drill exaggerated the risk of another influx.

"The exercise is not needed. I see it even as a little provocative," Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said. The exercise was carried out at Spielfeld, a crossing where Austria set up a large crowd-management system in early 2016 designed to handle up to 11,000 people a day, only for the number of arrivals to collapse soon afterwards.

In contrast to a smaller exercise held under the previous government, yesterday's drill did not involve migrants being violent or any arrests. But five military helicopters, including two Black Hawks, hovered overhead. Two hundred trainee police officers acted the part of migrants.

Migration has returned to the top of the political agenda in Europe after the Bavarian sister party to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats last week gave her an ultimatum to broker a European immigration deal. The issue threatens to wreck her coalition government.

After meeting Germany's Bavarian interior minister this month, Mr Kurz called for an "axis of the willing" on illegal immigration including Italy, where the far right is also in government. He is pushing for the European Union to set up centres outside its territory where asylum claims can be processed. He also wants migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to be taken back to Africa rather than transported to Europe. </s> Fearful of a domino effect if Germany closes its borders, Austria staged a high-profile training exercise yesterday to show how it could deal with an influx of refugees along its frontier with Slovenia.

Hundreds of police in heavy armor, backed by soldiers and ‘Black Hawk' helicopters flying overheard, performed a dry run for the media near Spielfeld, 175 kilometers (110 miles) south of Vienna. The town was a major crossing point for migrants in late 2015, but has hardly seen any arrivals recently.

The migrants were played by 200 Austrian police cadets, who chanted and rattled the metal fence, demanding to be let in.

Austria's top security official said the exercise was necessary and lawful, dismissing concerns at home and abroad.

"A state which, if things come to a head, can't protect its borders effectively, loses its credibility," Interior Minister Herbert Kickl told reporters. "I'm strongly determined that events like those in 2015 must never happen again."

Kickl said he wanted to prevent people from abusing the right to asylum. "This has nothing to do with inhumanity, this isn't unlawful, this isn't indecent," he said. "This is what the law demands from us. It is what the people expect from us."

Kickl's far-right Freedom Party has pushed for a hard line against migrants for years and saw a surge in support following the 2015 migrant crisis, when thousands of people fleeing war and hardship at home poured through Europe's open borders daily, triggering a humanitarian and political crisis that has left deep divisions on the continent.

Meanwhile, Martin Sellner, who heads Austria's Identitarian Movement, applauded the fact that authorities were using the same "#proborders" hashtag favored by his white nationalist group to inform the public about the exercise. </s> Austria today staged a dramatic border protection exercise as it prepares to assume the EU presidency and push for hardline immigration measures as the bloc is gripped by increasingly bitter divisions over the migrant crisis.

Austrian leader Sebastian Kurz will assume the EU's rotating presidency on July 1 and has vowed to make migrants claim asylum before entering the bloc.

That policy echoes the position of Italy, which has started turning away migrant vessels and proposed setting up processing centres in Libya and other countries of origin.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also locked in a struggle with her hardline government coalition partners that threatens to topple her government, and a summit between EU leaders on Sunday made little progress on tackling the crisis.

Kurz fears if Germany unilaterally closes its southern border then other EU nations will follow suit.

Today heavily armed policemen - wearing helmets and body armour while carrying riot shields - were on display to show Germany that Austria is willing to shut its own borders if Merkel's interior minister follows through with his threat to close the Bavarian frontier.

Thousands of migrants poured through Europe's open borders daily three years ago, triggering a humanitarian and political crisis that has left deep divisions on the continent.

But relatively few migrants pass through the Austria-Slovenia frontier near the town of Spielfeld today, where the exercises were held.

Speaking to German daily Bild, Austrian Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache said his country was testing out its new 'Puma police border protection unit' for the first time.

He added: 'We want to prepare ourselves for all developments and send a clear signal that there will no longer be a loss of control and free passage like in 2015.

'The reasons for this are the debate about intra-European border closures, triggered by Germany, as well as current developments on the refugee routes in the Balkans.'

It comes after more than half of the EU's leaders met in Brussels on Sunday to grapple with a resurgent political crisis over migration that threatens to tear the bloc apart.

With police dogs and armoured vehicles, the Austrians today stood in front of a fence as actors - police cadets - posed as migrants during the drill.

Chancellor Kurz said at the weekend that he would 'be ready and do everything necessary to protect our borders' if Horst Seehofer, Germany's interior minister, goes ahead with plans to protect his country's southern frontier.

He added: 'That would mean securing the border on the Brenner [Pass] and other locations... [though] I want to help ensure it doesn't get that far.'

That dispute within the German coalition has prompted worries within the EU that there will be a domino effect of member nations tightening their borders.

Seehofer is allied with Austria's Kurz, whose country on July 1 takes over from Bulgaria the six-month rotating EU presidency.

Today, meanwhile, Italy's deputy prime minister said its coastguard and navy should ignore SOS calls from migrant boats in the Mediterranean.

Matteo Salvini has already warned foreign charities to stop picking up migrants off Libya, accusing them of 'causing trouble' and saying Italian ports 'are and will be closed to those who aid human traffickers.'

Salvini, also the country's interior minister, made the comments after a surprise visit to Libya, a key departure point for thousands of migrants making the dangerous crossing to Europe.

On his return to Rome, he was asked for his views on reported plans for Italian maritime authorities to ignore SOS calls made by migrant vessels in the Mediterranean.

He said of the proposals - reportedly being considered by the minister of transport - that 'if that was the decision, it would have my full support' adding that Libya's coastguard authorities was capable of marshalling its own coastline.

It comes as hundreds of migrants remained stranded at sea in the Mediterranean, deepening a crisis shaking Europe.

In Tripoli, Salvini called for the establishment of processing centres in various unnamed African countries to deal with potential migrants in a move 'to help Libya as well as Italy block migration'.

Libya is a key departure point for thousands of migrants hoping to reach Europe, although hundreds drown each year attempting the crossing.

Salvini's unexpected trip came a day after emergency talks between 16 European Union leaders in a bid to break a longstanding deadlock over who should take in the migrants, the bulk of whom have been landing in Italy and Greece.

The crisis came to a head earlier this month when Italy's new populist government turned away a rescue boat carrying 630 people, which was also rejected by Malta, forcing the vessel to remain at sea until Spain offered them safe haven.

But the relief was short-lived, with Italy and Malta refusing a second vessel carrying 234 migrants who were rescued on Thursday.

The move left Germany-operated rescue boat Lifeline stranded in international waters near Malta.

'Let's see if Europe remembers that it actually exists because there is still a boat loaded with migrants in Maltese waters waiting for a port to welcome it and we can tell you again, it won't be in an Italian port,' Salvini said.

Austria has suggested that Albania could be used to process illegal migrants outside of the EU before sending them 'back to their countries of origin as soon as possible'.

Chancellor Kurz confirmed Austria is working with Denmark and other countries to work out a solution to the migration crisis involving non-EU members.

Under the so-called Dublin rules, asylum-seekers must be processed in the country where they first arrive, often Mediterranean countries like Italy, Greece and Spain.

EU leaders last December had set the end of June as a deadline to reform the rules by establishing a permanent mechanism to relocate asylum-seekers throughout the bloc.

With such reform elusive, Merkel is now pushing for bilateral, trilateral and multilateral deals.

Merkel also got Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to attend the mini-summit by telling him pre-written conclusions had been withdrawn, Italian officials said.

Draft conclusions included calls to speed up returns to countries tasked with processing them, such as Italy.

Rome on Saturday accused French President Emmanuel Macron of 'arrogance' for turning back migrants at the French-Italian border.

Ahmed Maiteeq, deputy head of the Government of National Accord (GNA), said Libya would host a migration summit in September.

Earlier, he told Italy's La Repubblica daily that Europe 'must think of structural measures to take in African countries to stop migrants.'

On his return to Rome, Salvini said a technical team would be set up this week with representatives from Italy, Niger, Chad and Mali.

He dismissed calls by France and Spain for asylum-seekers to be kept in closed centres until their claims are processed - a proposal Rome fears would turn Italy into 'a refugee camp for all of Europe'.

'Welcome hotspots in Italy? It would be a problem for us and for Libya itself because it would not stop these deadly waves (of migration). We have proposed reception centres south of Libya to avoid Tripoli becoming a funnel, like Italy,' he wrote on Twitter.

'The only way to really counteract the traffickers' criminal interests and avoid these voyages of death is to stop these boats putting out to sea,' he added in a separate statement.

The crisis has seen France's Emmanuel Macron accusing Rome of 'irresponsibility' for turning away the boats, and Italy denouncing Paris for its hypocrisy in pushing migrants back across their shared border.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing an ultimatum from her hardline interior minister who has given her until the end of June to find a European deal to curb new arrivals.

Sunday's emergency EU leaders meeting had aimed to clear the air between member states ahead of a scheduled full summit on Thursday and Friday.

Both Macron and Merkel have vowed to forge ahead with like-minded leaders on ways to reduce migrant flows, but the EU's top migration official warned that Europe would solve the crisis only by working together.

'We must find a way to adopt a shared policy and a shared strategy to face this situation, otherwise the European project is in danger,' Dimitris Avramopoulos told AFP on a visit to Tehran. </s> Austria has held a high-profile training exercise to show how it could deal with an influx of refugees along its frontier with Slovenia.

Austria has held a high-profile training exercise to show how it could deal with an influx of refugees along its frontier with Slovenia.

Austrian police and army hold training exercise to keep out migrants

The town was a major crossing point for migrants in late 2015, but has hardly seen any arrivals recently. The “migrants” were played by 200 Austrian police cadets, who chanted and rattled the metal fence, demanding to be let in.

Austria’s top security official said the exercise was necessary and lawful, dismissing concerns at home and abroad. “A state which, if things come to a head, can’t protect its borders effectively loses its credibility,” interior minister Herbert Kickl told reporters.

“I’m strongly determined that events like those in 2015 must never happen again.” Kickl said he wanted to prevent people from abusing the right to asylum.

“This has nothing to do with inhumanity, this isn’t unlawful, this isn’t indecent,” he said. “This is what the law demands from us. It is what the people expect from us.”

Kickl’s far-right Freedom Party has pushed for a hard line against migrants for years and saw a surge in support following the 2015 migrant crisis, when thousands of people fleeing war and hardship at home poured through Europe’s open borders daily.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under pressure from conservative allies in Bavaria to turn migrants who come through other European countries back at the border. Merkel, whose decision to allow migrants stuck in Austria and Hungary to come to Germany was initially welcomed by voters, has warned that unilaterally closing borders could prompt the triggering of a string of national measures by individual countries that would further divide Europe.

Speaking in Berlin, Merkel said most EU countries were more concerned about preventing migrants from illegally entering Europe in the first place. Neighboring Slovenia protested against the Austrian exercise, saying its own forces were already doing enough to protect the external borders of the Schengen travel zone within which Europeans can travel freely without passports.

“I even see it (the exercise) as somewhat provocative,” Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said on Tuesday, according to the official STA news agency. Cerar said the number of migrants entering Austria from Slovenia has not increased and described his country as an “exemplary” protector of the Schengen border. </s> Fearful of a domino effect if Germany closes its borders, Austria staged a high-profile training exercise Tuesday to show how it could deal with an influx of refugees along its frontier with Slovenia.

Hundreds of police in heavy armor, backed by soldiers and ‘Black Hawk’ helicopters flying overheard, performed a dry run for the media near Spielfeld, 175 kilometers (110 miles) south of Vienna. The town was a major crossing point for migrants in late 2015, but has hardly seen any arrivals recently.

The “migrants” were played by 200 Austrian police cadets, who chanted and rattled the metal fence, demanding to be let in.

Austria’s top security official said the exercise was necessary and lawful, dismissing concerns at home and abroad.

“A state which, if things come to a head, can’t protect its borders effectively, loses its credibility,” Interior Minister Herbert Kickl told reporters. “I’m strongly determined that events like those in 2015 must never happen again.”

Kickl said he wanted to prevent people from abusing the right to asylum. “This has nothing to do with inhumanity, this isn’t unlawful, this isn’t indecent,” he said. “This is what the law demands from us. It is what the people expect from us.”

Kickl’s far-right Freedom Party has pushed for a hard line against migrants for years and saw a surge in support following the 2015 migrant crisis, when thousands of people fleeing war and hardship at home poured through Europe’s open borders daily, triggering a humanitarian and political crisis that has left deep divisions on the continent.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under heavy pressure from conservative allies in Bavaria to turn migrants who come through other European countries back at the border.

Merkel, whose decision to allow migrants stuck in Austria and Hungary to come to Germany was initially welcomed by voters, has warned that unilaterally closing borders could prompt the triggering of a string of national measures by individual countries that would further divide Europe.

Speaking in Berlin, Merkel said most EU countries are more concerned about preventing migrants from illegally entering Europe in the first place.

Neighboring Slovenia protested the Austrian exercise, saying its own forces are already doing enough to protect the external borders of the Schengen travel zone within which Europeans can travel freely without passports.

In a letter to Kickl earlier in June, Slovenian Interior Minister Vesna Gyorkos Znidar said a “show of mass arrival of illegal migrants from the Slovenian to the Austrian side would inevitably have a very negative effect in Slovenia and likely in Austria.”

She argued the exercise would “contribute in no way whatsoever to the good relationship between our countries or our joint efforts to control the migration situation in the region,” the STA news agency reported.

One Austrian police union criticized the fact that Tuesday’s practice run, which included the first public appearance of Austria’s new PUMA border force, had itself been practiced before media were invited to watch.

Meanwhile, Martin Sellner, who heads Austria’s Identitarian Movement, applauded the fact that authorities were using the same “#proborders” hashtag favored by his white nationalist group to inform the public about the exercise. </s> Austria has held a high-profile training exercise to show how it could deal with an influx of refugees along its frontier with Slovenia.

Hundreds of police in heavy armour, backed by soldiers and Black Hawk helicopters flying overhead, performed a dry run for the media near Spielfeld, 110 miles south of Vienna.

The town was a major crossing point for migrants in late 2015, but has hardly seen any arrivals recently.

Kickl’s far-right Freedom Party has pushed for a hard line against migrants for years and saw a surge in support following the 2015 migrant crisis, when thousands of people fleeing war and hardship at home poured through Europe’s open borders daily.

It triggered a humanitarian and political crisis that has left deep divisions on the continent.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under pressure from conservative allies in Bavaria to turn migrants who come through other European countries back at the border.

Merkel, whose decision to allow migrants stuck in Austria and Hungary to come to Germany was initially welcomed by voters, has warned that unilaterally closing borders could prompt the triggering of a string of national measures by individual countries that would further divide Europe.

Speaking in Berlin, Merkel said most EU countries were more concerned about preventing migrants from illegally entering Europe in the first place.

Neighboring Slovenia protested against the Austrian exercise, saying its own forces were already doing enough to protect the external borders of the Schengen travel zone within which Europeans can travel freely without passports.

“I even see it (the exercise) as somewhat provocative,” Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said on Tuesday, according to the official STA news agency.

Cerar said the number of migrants entering Austria from Slovenia has not increased and described his country as an “exemplary” protector of the Schengen border. </s> Police chief inspector Timo Schüller (pictured above) stands next to Germany's A3 motorway at border to the Austria. One after another trucks drive past him. The noise is deafening. Schüller, wearing a blue sports jacket, has to raise his voice to be heard. "Many refugees from the Middle East cross into Germany here," he explains. The motorway is part of the so-called Balkan migration route.

Read more: Outcry in Bavaria over extending police powers

Schüller looks over to a dark brown, derelict former border post still located between both motorway lanes. The building used to be part of the Suben checkpoint, which was located just south of the Inn River, which divides Germany and Austria. The checkpoint was closed when Austria joined the EU's Schengen agreement, which prohibits border controls within the bloc. That was in 1995. Back then, Bavarian border police served at Suben. By 1998, the control post became superfluous and was closed. "Now, we're patrolling a 30-kilometer-wide [19 mile] strip along the border, and we're doing a good job," Schüller says.

Officially, nobody is challenging this assessment. But some political leaders in Bavaria imply that border checks should in fact be improved. Bavaria's state government has a vision of what the future of border policing could look like: Newly appointed State Premier Markus Söder of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), announced plans to establish a Bavarian border guard, promising that, "We will get to work!" And Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann stressed that "our new border guard will help reduce illegal migration, fight inhumane people smugglers and cross-border crime." A 1,000-strong border guard is planned.

Timo Schüller learned of these plans "from the media." And he doesn't want to provide a political interpretation. So he flatly states: "In Germany, the national police force is responsible for protecting borders." Which, he says, is exactly what it says in the law pertaining to the national police force. And it's what can be observed every day. Uniformed and plainclothes national police officers patrol the area, with the right to stop and search any car they deem suspicious.The Bavarian state police participate in these random spot checks. The law stipulates that they must hand over asylum-seekers, migrants in the country illegally and people smugglers to the national police.

Read more: Germany: Is Bavaria set for an anti-Merkel conservative swing?

The Schengen agreement did not put an end to border surveillance. EU citizens were given the feeling that state borders had ceased being important. In the meantime, the mood has changed. Schüller gets into his police car. He wants to show us where border controls have become an important topic again.

Border checks are a sensitive issue in Lower Bavaria, in Germany's southeast. In September 2015, locals felt like they were caught up amid a state of emergency when hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East were allowed to cross the border. Residents vividly remember those days. Everyone helped out in those difficult times. The national police, the state police, Germany's army and thousands of volunteers. It was a major effort and huge numbers of asylum-seekers were helped. But many locals were left feeling that neither the government nor state authorities really had had the situation under control. It undermined their trust in the state.

Gerhard Waschler represents Passau East in the Bavarian state parliament. The CSU politician saw first-hand what can happen when Bavarians are worried their border isn't secure: The far-right AfD party won many votes in the region during last year's general election.

"A vast majority supports the idea of a Bavarian border guard," Waschler is pleased to report. He says surveys indicate Bavarians are most concerned about security issues. "And creating a border guard definitely increases security."

Waschler's fellow party member Walter Taubeneder from Passau West, who also holds a seat in the Bavarian parliament, hopes the "innumerable border crossings" with Austria and the Czech Republic will soon be under tighter control. He is eager to see the plans for the new border guard. In a recent address, Bavarian State Premier Markus Söder promised "more than just spot checks," including the use of drone technology. Waschler and Taubeneder are happy the border guard's headquarters is set to open in Passau in July. That will certainly help in the upcoming election for state parliament.

Read more: A deeper look at Germany's new Interior and Heimat Ministry

"Bavaria's state government has indeed touched a nerve with that," said Christian Flisek, a prominent domestic policy specialist in the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). He aims to win a seat in Bavaria's state parliament in October. Flisek does not reject deploying extra police along the border with Austria, but he is somewhat wary of the idea. "That would be telling the people: Merkel failed, the federal government failed, now we are taking the situation into our own hands — but that is actually a bogus claim," he said. Flisek believes that bringing in a new organization, with new uniforms and badges, would not change the fact that they ultimately would have the same powers as the border police already operating in Bavaria. "It's a symbolic policy, just like the fixed border controls that have been reintroduced in Bavaria," he said.

In 2015, Germany's federal police built a new checkpoint at a parking lot 10 kilometers from the border with Austria. Bavarian state authorities pushed for it as a way to catch people smugglers, migrants in the country illegally and other criminals. It helped people in Bavaria to feel that their safety concerns were being taken seriously. Three such checkpoints on the autobahn to Bavaria have made the security presence there much more visible. However, they also make it clear that authorities are not as closely patrolling the many other routes across the border. Adding new border police would not necessarily do anything to change that situation, as they would not be allowed to carry out future controls.

On the A3 itself, the border controls tend to hold up traffic fairly often. Symbolic policies, then, do have a price.

"The traffic jams particularly anger the commuters," said Georg Perl, who heads the inspection authority. The exhausting work here requires a lot of manpower. He and his team usually look at every car passing through — a traffic-control system slows vehicles down to a walking speed. Suspicious vehicles are waved to the side and examined by a special team inside a tent structure originally designed for farm animals. At the moment, the tent is empty. "When the traffic really slows down, we take a break from controls so it can get going again," said Perl.

Does that not then mean that anyone who really wants to slip through the cracks, can? Perl grins. "Today again we had a trunk with illegal puppies, no older than eight weeks," he said. Smugglers know that the authorities are here. The ones carrying people can travel through one of the numerous other border junctures in the region. Nevertheless, Perl said he and his team still find plenty.

"We get lots of hits with people who are wanted, or traffic offenses, but fewer cases involving people with migrant backgrounds," he said. Those cases are transferred to the border police. Perl calls them "incidental."
Austrian troops and police conduct a border exercise simulating a possible mass arrival of migrants similar to one in 2015, amid tensions within the European Union over migrant rescue ships and fears that Germany may close its borders.