Germany to keep border controls, interior minister vows

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt plans to maintain border controls despite a decline in the number of asylum seekers.

"At the moment, our focus is on keeping these border controls in place," Dobrindt, a member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative bloc, told public broadcaster ARD on Sunday evening. He said people were still being turned back at the border.

In May 2025, Dobrindt intensified border controls that were expanded to all of Germany's land borders by his predecessor, Nancy Faeser of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). 

He also instructed the federal police to turn back asylum seekers, with exceptions for people who are ill, pregnant women and others in need of special assistance.

Dobrindt said that in the medium term, the German government intends to "make the migration system in Europe functional enough that we can move away from border controls again."

"But today it would be too early to say when that point will come," he added.

In April, significantly fewer people in Germany filed first-time asylum applications than in the same month a year earlier.

According to information from the Interior Ministry, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) received 6,144 applications for protection last month. That was almost a third fewer than in April 2025, when the agency recorded 9,108 first-time asylum applications.

The German government also plans to continue deporting criminals to Afghanistan, with Dobrindt saying such deportations were taking place every week. "We are consistently continuing down this path," he said.

The minister said the government was in talks with the authorities in Afghanistan on the issue, adding that he could not understand the criticism.

Anyone criticizing the deportation of serious criminals had to say whether Germany would be a safer country if "these people" were allowed to stay, Dobrindt said.