Germany extends Austria border controls over migrants for six months

Germany said on Friday it will extend border controls with Austria for another six months. The checks were reintroduced in several places in the passport-free Schengen zone in response to the migrant influx. The new measures will begin on November 12 and apply for six months, German Interior Ministry spokeswoman Eleonore Petermann said. “It is important to say in this context that it is still our aim to return to a Schengen without borders, without border controls,” AFP quoted Petermann as saying. “But we still see problems with the protection of the EU’s external borders and we still have high numbers for illegal secondary migration” between member states, she said. Since 2015, several countries in the 26-nation Schengen zone have reintroduced border controls due to the largest migrant crisis since World War II.