Germany to increase border security measures after Berlin terror attack

Following a terror attack in Berlin last week that killed 12 people, the German government plans to step up their border security and deportation tactics.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper over the weekend that he plans to extend "controls" of German borders beyond their original expiration date in February.

"I intend to extend controls ... for many more months," De Maizière told the newspaper, according to a translation from Politico Europe. "Currently, I don’t anticipate an end to them."

Prior to the migrant crisis, which saw millions of immigrants from war-torn Iraq and Syria be displaced to Europe, Germany was the first European country to reintroduce border controls in Sept. 2015. Under the European Union's Schengen agreement, Germany — in addition to Austria, Denmark, France, Norway, Poland and Sweden — had open borders.

The large influx of migrants, some of whom have been implicated in terror attacks and/or criminal activity, created political pressure on the Merkel government, which has reacted by imposing additional security measures. However, Germany continues to struggle to assimilate much of the largely Islamic population of refugees.

But De Maizière has been trying to change that, and along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, De Maizière plans to accelerate the process of deportation for immigrants whose asylum requests were denied by the German government.

Accelerating deportation, along with tighter border controls, will hopefully alleviate the migrant headache Germany currently faces, De Maizière told the newspaper.