Switzerland-Germany: border security
01 January 1996
Between January and November 1995 1,275 people were deported from Switzerland to Germany. The number for the year 1994 was 1,393. Most of the people were third country nationals - in 1995 only 15 Swiss people and 325 German were repatriated. The German Minister of the Interior said the numbers will rise by about 10% when the readmission agreement between the two states comes into force from 27 November 1995. The agreement signed in December 1993 and effected through an exchange of notes between the Swiss Justice Minister, Mr Koller, and the German Interior Minister, Mr Kanther.
The Ministers also signed a declaration which sets out a future "system of cooperative security". The details are to be negotiated by a joint working group under the direction of the General Secretary of the Swiss Justice Department, Mr Walpen, and the German State Secretary of the Interior, Mr Schelter. The other members of the group will be drawn from the Federal Border Police and the Police forces of the Länder on the German side and the Border Guard (part of Customs) and the police forces of the Swiss Cantones.
The declaration says the issues to be arranged are: 1) border police contact offices: to coordinate deportations and extraditions as well as the exchange of information. Germany currently has 11 such contact offices on the borders with France and the Benelux states which are also used for cross border observations; 2) designated commissioners on both sides to channel rapid contacts; 3) coordination of patrols and checks; 4) joint training of officers; 5) "compatible communications systems" - common radio frequencies.
As a second step cooperation will be extended to other aspects of policing and security such as the exchange of liaison officers between the BKA (German Federal Criminal Police Office) and the Swiss Federal Office for police matters (BAP) - which run several central units for drug trafficking, organised crime and central information systems. For about a year the BAP has - along with a number of other European police force central units - direct access via terminals to the data held on the wanted objects system of the German INPOL-data system. As this only holds references to "objects" - stolen cars, identity papers, weapons - inquiries concerning the owners must be directed to the BKA on the Interpol channels via fax. The BKA also provides training for Swiss cover police agents. Between 1991 to 1995 18 Swiss officers were trained in undercover courses.
Deutscher Bundestag 13/3407, Answer to a parliamentary question by Manfred Such (Green Party); Abkommen zwischen dem Schweizerischen Bundesrat und der Regierung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland über die Rückübernahme von Personen mit unbefugtem Aufenthalt (readmission agreement); Gemeinsame Erklärung des Bundesministers des Innern under des Vorstehers des Eidgenössischen Justiz- und Polizeidepartements (common declaration), Bern, Switzerland, 27.11.95; Wochenzeitung, 26.1.96.