Controls along Germany’s land borders with its neighbours in the Schengen free-travel zone are to remain in place for another 20 days, the Interior Ministry in Berlin said on Wednesday.

Introduced a month ago due to the coronavirus outbreak, the controls are in place on the borders to Austria, France, Luxembourg, Denmark and Switzerland.

No controls are in place on the borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, although surveillance in a 30-kilometre border zone has been intensified.

Since mid-March, travellers who are neither German nor permanently resident in Germany have been permitted to enter Germany only if they can show a good reason.

These include EU citizens travelling through Germany to their home countries and truck drivers carrying essential goods.

The number of crossings has also been reduced in an attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Germany’s borders with its neighbours are normally open, in line with the Schengen Agreement signed in 1985.

NAN