Swamped Germany tightens border as human flood rolls on

Police control cars at the Austrian-German border near Bad Reichenhalll, southern Germany. Photo / AP

Facing an unstaunchable flood of migrants and refugees, Germany yesterday said it was reaching breaking point and would enact emergency controls on its border with Austria, temporarily suspending train services and conducting highway checks along the main pipeline for thousands seeking sanctuary in Western Europe.

The move signalled the extent of the crisis confronting Europe, a region where a decades-long policy of open borders, once a source of pride and unity, is eroding as nations struggle to cope with a record flow of refugees. Only last week, Denmark temporarily closed a highway and suspended trains on its southern border with Germany, and French authorities have searched for refugees on trains crossing from Italy.

Policemen check vehicles on a country road to Freilassing, Austria. Photo / AP

Yet even as Germany moved to restore "order" to the chaotic inflow, the death toll continued to climb. Off a Greek island yesterday, 34 refugees, including four infants and 11 children, drowned when their wooden boat overturned and sank. It appeared to be the worst loss of life in those waters since the migrant crisis began.

Berlin says the emergency on its southeastern border is a question of national security. Germany has thus far stepped in to take in the most asylum seekers of any European Union nation, but its ability to aid refugees is being tested amid a record surge of 40,000 over the weekend - from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, among other countries. Officials in the besieged state of Bavaria, for instance, declared they had run out of space to house refugees.

Coupled with an expected move by Hungary to reinforce its southern border with Serbia, the German action suggested migrants may now face tougher barriers as they seek safety.

"The aim of this measure is to restrict the current flow to Germany and return to an orderly procedure of immigration," German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said yesterday.

He implied many asylum seekers were trying to reach Germany because of its generous benefits and seemed to fault other EU nations for not stepping up to do more: "Asylum seekers have to accept that they cannot just choose the member state of the European Union granting them protection."

As Germany struggles to cope, turning army barracks, schools and former hardware stores into impromptu shelters, some politicians have called Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision into serious question, arguing that the nation can't give sanctuary to all.

Yesterday, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said in Munich that cars would be monitored at the border in order to capture human traffickers and allow refugees to request asylum upon being stopped.

But he said those who had already applied for asylum elsewhere in the EU - for instance, in Hungary or Austria - would be sent back in accordance with European laws.

Depending on how long the stricter German border measures last, the decision could spark new bottlenecks in Austria that could ripple into Hungary as well as other countries crossed by those fleeing conflict and poverty.

Austrian police forces stand at the main rail station in Salzburg Austria. Photo / AP

The German decision was the latest blow to open borders in Europe, a policy dating back to the 1985 Schengen Agreement that allows free movement across 26 nations.

Assuming the new German checks are limited in duration they would not violate the agreement, which allows nations to institute border restrictions under certain circumstances.