Smuggling gangs 'bring 1,500 people per week' to Germany

Police union official says numbers likely to rise with warmer weather

German border police recorded almost 92,000 illegal entries last year. Getty

About 1,500 illegal migrants are being brought to Germany every week by criminal gangs, a police union official has said.

Andreas Rosskopf said people were being smuggled by “full-time professionals” who offer “guaranteed success”.

Mr Rosskopf, who represents border guards in Germany’s biggest police union, told the newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung that numbers were likely to rise in the summer.

“At the moment we are observing about 1,500 illegal entries per week at the borders,” he said.

“It undoubtedly won’t stay like that. With every month that it gets warmer, more people will come.”

Last year almost 92,000 people entered illegally, the highest figure in six years, according to federal police. Numbers swelled in the second half of last year.

There is concern in Germany about the ability of towns and cities to absorb more migrants.

More than a million refugees from Ukraine are living in Germany, adding to earlier flows from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

Germany and Austria have both introduced temporary border checks to stem the flow of people via south-eastern Europe.

Elsewhere, Britain is trying to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, in an bid to deter them from crossing the English Channel in small boats.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told MPs last week that his government wanted to reduce irregular migration.

People with humanitarian needs should be admitted but “those who have no right of residence in Germany must return to their home countries quickly”, he said.

He said legal routes should be opened up instead as German industry grapples with labour shortages.