According to tomorrow’s Die Welt, German Federal Police (Bundespolizei) has prepared plans for the closing of the countries border with Austria. According to said newspaper sources, the Federal Police has presented those plans to coalition parties. The police plan aims at the rejection of refugees at the border with Austria, and to only grant entry to small quotas.

At the first stage of the plan, 60 larger border crossings would be shut down for refugees and migrants and the bridges over the Salzach and Inn rivers would be closed. Water cannons could be used if needed. Further away from the border line, police would collect people that made it through the “green border” and bring them back, while helicopters would be used to bring people from Bavarian reception centres back to the border also. According to the supposed plan, such robust measures could only last up to seven days.

Legal basis for the rejection at the border would be the Asylum Procedure Act. This stipulates that refugees who come from a safe third country, may be rejected and returned to the country in which they entered the EU.