Germany extends controls along Czech, Swiss and Polish borders

Germany will extend temporary border controls along the country's borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland until at least mid-June, reported dpa.

Germany's Interior Ministry officially notified the European Commission of the decision, which had been widely expected. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said last week during a visit to Prague that an extension of the border controls was very likely.

In a statement on Saturday, Faeser cited continued irregular migration and efforts to stop human traffickers for extending the border controls.

"This is necessary to stop the unscrupulous business of people smugglers and to limit irregular migration," Faeser said.

All four countries are members of the Schengen free-movement area, which means that there are normally no regular border controls and only very limited random spot checks.

But Germany has repeatedly invoked temporary powers to tighten border controls in recent years to control the flow of migrants and asylum seekers. Similar border checks were reimposed along Germany's border with Austria in 2015 and remain in effect.

Since October 16, German federal police have detected a total of almost 23,000 unauthorized entries as part of the internal border controls with the four countries, the ministry said.

The monthly number fell from around 21,000 in September to around 6,700 in January. In addition, 564 smugglers were arrested during this period, according to the ministry.

Some of those countries have also introduced similar temporary border controls with some of their other neighbours, such as Austria on its border with Hungary and the Czech Republic on its border with Slovakia.