Presenting his 2025/26 annual report to Parliament on 15 July 2026, Federal Police Commissioner Uli Grötsch delivered an unusually stark warning: the continuous stationary checks at Germany’s land borders are overstretching the Bundespolizei. Around 14 000 officers rotate through roughly 60 control posts, many of which still lack basic shelter and sanitation. “It is a huge achievement—but one that cannot be maintained indefinitely,” Grötsch told the parliamentary television channel. The checks, re-introduced in 2024 and repeatedly extended, were intended as a temporary response to irregular migration but have gradually become the new normal. Complaint statistics underscore the human impact: over the last 12 months the Commissioner received 421 petitions, a 50 % jump on the previous cycle. Twelve per cent alleged discrimination—mostly profiling at border stops. Operational pressure is beginning to affect other police duties. The Federal Readiness Police (Bundesbereitschaftspolizei) has diverted platoons from rail security and airport patrols to staff land crossings, generating a backlog of 1.8 million unused holiday hours and a €72 million overtime bill, according to the report. For global-mobility programmes the message is twofold. First, travellers should expect ad-hoc inspections to continue through at least September, but processing times and infrastructure may vary widely between crossings. Second, any shift towards risk-based, mobile controls—as the Commissioner recommends—could be announced with little notice. Corporates moving goods or personnel across German borders with Austria, Poland, Czechia, Switzerland or the Benelux states should therefore monitor policy signals closely and keep contingency buffers in ground-transport schedules.
Source: Deutscher Bundestag – Textarchiv
