Customs and immigration screenings amount to €80.5 million in expenses. - Annual Expenditure on Border Controls Amounts to €80.5 Million
The ongoing debate surrounding Germany's border control policy has taken a new turn, with the interior expert of the Left Party faction, Clara Bünger, labelling the federal government's approach as an "illegal border closure policy". Bünger has called for an immediate end to border controls, citing various concerns.
Between May 8th and August 4th, federal police officers turned back a total of 493 people at Germany's land borders, despite them having submitted an asylum application. Bünger criticised these controls for making it harder for asylum seekers to flee, causing traffic chaos in border regions, burdening border commuters, and incurring substantial costs.
However, a search for detailed information on the cost breakdown for Germany's border controls from September 2024 to June 2025 has yielded limited results. The search did not reveal specific details about overtime pay, catering, accommodation, allowances, leadership and deployment means, or the operation of border stations.
Documents related to meetings and homeland security costs were found, but they lacked details on catering, allowances, deployment, accommodation, or station operation. Other search results focused on unrelated topics such as tax guides in Germany, UK GDP, and aviation budgets.
As a result, there is no publicly available breakdown in the search results on the specific cost components of Germany's border controls for that period. If such information exists, it may be found in government budget reports or specific governmental agency disclosures related to German border security or police operational budgets, which were not part of the retrieved search results.
The implementation of the border controls is the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The city of Berlin, home to the German Press Agency and the Funke Media Group headquarters, has also been a source of information about the controls. The controls at Germany's land borders, initially introduced by Nancy Faeser in September 2021 as a temporary measure, have been extended several times and are currently managed by Alexander Dobrindt.
For those interested in staying informed about this issue, the Funke Media Group publishes the Stern newspaper, which sends a free newsletter every Wednesday containing important content from the Stern editorial team, curated by Editor-in-chief Gregor Peter Schmitz.
If you are seeking more specific information on the cost breakdown of Germany's border controls, potential official sources include contacting the German Federal Police (Bundespolizei) budget offices or reviewing the German Federal Ministry of the Interior’s published financial statements.
- EC countries might find it interesting to know that there's a lack of transparency regarding the cost breakdown of Germany's border controls, which could potentially affect their own respective policy decisions in vocational training, industry, finance, politics, and general-news.
- Businesses might want to keep an eye on the ongoing debate surrounding Germany's border control policy, as the extended controls could impact traffic flow and thus, logistics and supply chain operations in the border regions.
- Crime-and-justice scholars may want to monitor this situation, as the prolonged border controls could influence migrant movements and, in turn, have implications for crime rates and justice systems in the affected areas.
