News / Germany

German FM urges Europe states to tighten border controls

Saturday, 26 December 2015 11:21 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 26 December 2015 12:44 PM ]

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier ©AFP

The German foreign minister has called on European countries to impose stricter border controls amid an influx of refugees from violence-torn states into the continent.

“It is important that we have more control again over who is entering and leaving Europe,” Steinmeier was quoted as saying on Saturday in an interview with newspapers in the Funke Medien Group.

Steinmeier warned against lumping refugees in the same category as suspected terrorists, many of whom, he admitted, were home-grown and came from Europe.

He said EU leaders had agreed to offer incentives to Turkey to help stem the flow of refugees and block them from moving towards the European continent.

He made the comments after Joachim Herrmann, interior minister in the southern German state of Bavaria, said refugees with fake Syrian passports had disappeared in Germany.

Those missing are suspected to have had contact with Daesh Takfiri militants mainly operating in Iraq and Syria, he said.

This image shows asylum-seekers walking on the platform at a train station near Berlin, December 24, 2015. ©AFP

Since last month’s Paris attacks, concern has grown that extremist militants might enter undetected among the influx of refugees.

Officials in European countries are struggling to forge a united response to the record numbers of refugees.

Many blame major European powers for the unprecedented exodus, saying their policies have led to a surge in terrorism and wars, forcing more people out of their homes.

According to recent figures by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than one million refugees have reached Europe’s shores so far this year.

Nearly 3,700 people have either died or gone missing in their perilous journey to the continent.

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