German Federal Police on Friday announced that officers patrolling in Aachen, near the Belgian border, stopped a van carrying 15 illegal migrants late Wednesday evening.
Police say the van, which had a capacity of nine, was overcrowded, with several of the passengers sitting on the floor without seatbelts, putting them in what officers called a life-threatening situation on the A44 autobahn.
Authorities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia say the 24-year-old driver and all 15 passengers were Indian nationals, none of whom could produce valid border-crossing documents. When asked where he lived, the driver said he was a legal resident of France. A check with French authorities quickly proved this to be untrue.
Driver charged, migrants denied entry or taken to immigration authorities
All 16 individuals were given warnings and taken to a nearby police station at Eschweiler, where they were searched and questioned. During questioning, police learned that the driver had charged between €20 and €100 ($21 – $104) per passenger for his assistance, while also promising that he could avoid police when bringing them to Germany.
Individuals who pleaded for asylum were taken to local immigration authorities, while the rest were sent back to Belgium.
The driver of the vehicle was charged with smuggling foreigners under life-threatening, inhumane or degrading circumstances or grave endangerment of health.
Germany reestablished border controls to thwart illegal migration
Illegal immigration has been a hot-button issue in Germany for some time but has become even more so in the run up to the country's February 23 federal election. The issue has plagued established parties and played to the advantage of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Most recently, opposition party leader and top chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) caused a national uproar by pushing for hardline immigration legislation that only gained traction with the help of AfD votes in parliament.
In September, Germany's Federal Ministry of the Interior gave notice to the European Commission that it would reintroduce land border controls with neighboring Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands for six months.
Such checks were already in place at its borders with Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Switzerland.
German authorities say the step of closing the border is necessary to clamp down on illegal entries, whereas critics say it violates the very idea of the Schengen Area, which does away with cross-border controls within the EU and Scandinavia.