Decline in unauthorized entry: debate in the Freilassinger City Council

Decline in unauthorized entry: debate in the Freilassinger City Council

in Freilassing, in the district of Berchtesgadener Land, current statistics were presented to control unauthorized entry by the federal police. These figures show a significant decline in unauthorized entry in the region. At a meeting in the city council, inspection manager Stefan Kurth announced that the presence of the federal police is not only responsible for the Walserberg motorway border crossing and the Freilassing train station, but for a total of four counties, 21 border crossings and 72 train stations. With 418 officials who are on average 33 years old, they take care of the order of order on the 225 km long German-Austrian border between Tyrol and Upper Austria.

"The numbers are declining nationwide, the artificially generated hysteria is not appropriate for political reasons," said Lukas Maushammer's new spokesman for the Greens in the city council. This statement fell during the session, in which the development and the challenges of the arrival of refugees were discussed. The statistics for 2024 show only 3,400 officially determined unauthorized entry by August - a drastic decline compared to previous years, where the numbers were still 11,000.

decline in unauthorized entry and new tractor routes

The numbers make it clear that most unauthorized entry into rail traffic is recorded. However, it is important to note that these numbers only show the determined cases and do not represent the entirety of the people actually traveled, since many border crossings are only sporadically checked. In addition, there was also an increase in found smugglers, with 277 so far this year, while the number of dangerous smuggings has increased. Kurth reported of 140 cases of life -threatening smuggling in 2023.

In the subsequent discussion, Maushammer dealt with the validity of the numbers, whether they only apply to Freilassing or other regions. Kurth confirmed that the declines of unauthorized entry are also observed nationwide, which is even associated with the foreign measures. Austria is also affected, where in the first half of 2024 a decline in asylum applications by 42 percent was recorded, which Interior Minister Gerhard Karner is attributed.

controversy around the controls

Another topic during the session was to carry out the controls at the Freilassing train station. SPD city councilor Manfred Mertl expressed the desire for a better coordination so that the controls for train drivers are less annoying. Inspection manager Kurth explained that trains are on average ten minutes for controls, which depends on the number of passengers.

This topic met with contradiction by Thomas Posch, Managing Director of the Westbahn, who denounced the unpredictability of the controls and called for an improvement in the processes. "Sometimes the train is checked on the departure, sometimes at a stop - sometimes nobody comes," he criticized the situation and wanted more clarity for the passengers.