Germany tightens Swiss border controls to stem flow of migrants

Germany has tightened bordercontrols with southern neighbour Switzerland to choke off a flowof illegal immigrants, Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer said,calling it evidence that Germany has withdrawn its welcomematfor migrants.

Germany's interior ministry confirmed border staffing hadbeen reinforced.

More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in theMiddle East, Africa and elsewhere arrived in Germany last year.

The mood towardthem has soured after a spate of attacks oncivilians last month, including three carried out by migrants.

Switzerland itself has cracked down on migrants many ofthem African trying to enter from southern neighbour Italyafter crossing the Mediterranean. Humanitarian groups arescrutinizing if the stance violates human rights conventions,which Swiss officials insist they will safeguard.

Migrants arriving from Italy sent back

Maurer, who as finance minister oversees border guards, usedthe tougher German line to justify Switzerland's approach ofsending back to Italy up to 1,000 migrants a day trying totransit to Germany or other points north without valid papersand without applying for asylum in Switzerland.

"Germany is consistently securing the border toSwitzerland," Maurer told a weekend congress of the right-wingSwiss People's Party (SVP), according to remarks reported by theNZZ am Sonntag paper and confirmed by his ministry.

The main transit path to Germany last year was the Balkanroute via Austria, but as border controls have been tightened,more people are travelling via the Mediterranean and Italy.

NZZ am Sonntag cited German federal police in Berlin assaying they caught 3,385 illegal immigrants from Switzerland sofar this year, up 40 percent from a year ago.

Maurer said German authorities had assigned an additionalroughly 90 border guards and 40 police officers to the bordersegment to turn back illegal migrants from Switzerland, adding:"Germany has clearly moved away from its welcoming attitude."

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Asked about Maurer's remarks, Germany's interior ministryconfirmed that federal police were deployed at the Swiss borderto detain and expel people who violate entry requirements and donot seek formal protection.

The numbers of such people has been increasing over the lastfew months and are in the low- to mid-double digits a day, aspokesman said by email, adding: "The development is related tothe still significant Mediterranean route to Italy."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's popularity has suffered inthe wake of the attacks and 52 percent of Germans think hermigrant policy is bad, a poll published this month showed.