EUROPE-MIGRANTS/POLICE CHECKS German police carry out checks on migrants arriving by train in border town

Record ID: 144745

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/POLICE CHECKS German police carry out checks on migrants arriving by train in border town
  • Date: 7th August 2015
  • Summary: ROSENHEIM, GERMANY (AUGUST 6, 2015) (REUTERS) ROSENHEIM TRAIN STATION POLICE AT TRAIN STATION POLICEMAN STANDING BESIDE TRAIN FROM VERONA, ITALY, AT PLATFORM ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT MOTHER WITH CHILD FROM BEHIND VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS WAITING ON STAIRS AT PLATFORM MIGRANT WEARING SUNGLASSES VARIOUS OF WOMAN BEING SEARCHED BY POLICE MIGRANTS SITTING ON STEPS VARIOUS OF POLICE AT TAB
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2BCQDAM14VMD8KAKDOSZ0E8CX
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Some 200 migrants cross the border by train from Italy, through Austria, to Germany every day. The majority come from Eritrea, Somalia, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria and many of them have paid thousands of euros to smugglers to make the long and hard journeys.
    The route is always the same - from Verona to Munich. That is where they aim to get to apply for asylum in the hope of finding a new and better life in Germany.
    On arrival in the German border town of Rosenheim the migrants are greeted by up to 20 police officers wearing bullet-proof vests and rubber gloves, who then write down their names and dates of birth to try and establish their identities. They also search the migrants - explained a spokesperson for the police in Rosenheim.
    "In the office we look very closely at whether the person has any documents hidden in their possessions which could point to their identity. Once that is done we can go to the police records department, which means we take finger prints to find out if they already have a police record, so if they have been charged with something in Germany already, which can be the case in individual cases," Rainer Scharf told Reuters TV.
    "Of course we know that there is not really any criminal intent behind the illegal entry (to Germany). The real criminal intent is with the smugglers - who, for a lot of money, at times thousands of dollars, smuggle people from Africa via the Mediterranean Sea to Italy and then from Italy to other European countries, and sometimes in inhumane conditions," Scharf added, saying that 60 smugglers were already known to the German police. They face up to five years in prison.
    In July alone, more than 6,400 migrants have arrived in the picturesque Bavarian town of Rosenheim, which sits just across the German-Austrian border. The main job of the 550 officers from the Police Inspections Unit in Rosenheim is to register the migrants, many of whom are scared and distressed when they arrive. The amount of people needing checked is so high that officers aren't left with much time for other types of policing around the town.
    Scharf said that they often hear moving stories from the migrants which officers struggle to get out of their heads even if they try not to get too involved.
    "It is a huge thing if someone says that they have fled over the Mediterranean Sea and the brothers who fled with them were swept away by a wave," he said.
    Musa Dampha made the journey from his home country of Gambia to Germany and is now staying in one of three halls set up by Rosenheim police to temporarily house the migrants.
    He wanted to leave behind poverty and violence, and says he feared for his own life.
    He said that he was twice robbed by the so-called "Asma Boys", a gang of Libyan youths, and then decided to carry on his journey to Europe.
    Altogether it took him more than two years to get from North Africa to Italy, then through Austria and finally ending in Germany. He hopes he will now be able to send for his wife and daughter to join him here but, he said, he doesn't have the money to do that just now.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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