Police figures reveal that irregular migration to Germany has dropped significantly in the last two years. The new German government has called for increased border checks. https://p.dw.com/p/4uTKB The German federal police controls vehicles coming into Germany from Austria at the border control station Kiefersfelden Police figures reveal that irregular migration to Germany has dropped significantly in the last two years.Image: Michaela Stache/AFP ADVERTISEMENT The number of migrants "illegally" entering Germany has dropped by over 100,000 in the past two years, according to German police figures. According to the figures, seen by German broadsheet newspaper Die Welt, 22,170 "illegal entries" into Germany have been recorded so far in 2025, down from 83,572 in the same period in 2024 and 127,549 in 2023. The figures come as Germany's new interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, has pushed for increased border checks in his first week in office, instructing police last week to turn back asylum-seekers with the exception of particularly vulnerable people such as pregnant women and children. German police conduct expanded border checks 02:10 Interior Ministry says border checks are 'working' On Thursday, Dobrindt, of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), visited a border crossing in the town of Kiefersfelden on the Austrian border alongside Bavarian Premier Markus Söder of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU's Bavarian sister party. Speaking to reporters, the pair said that some 729 attempts to illegally enter Germany had been thwarted in the last seven days, with Dobrindt insisting: "The new border checks are working." Speaking in parliament to introduce his ministry's plans to lawmakers on Friday, Dobrindt said that "the integration capabilities of a country have their limits when it comes to illegal migration. Citizens expect a political change from us and this change has begun on Germany's borders." Addressing the CDU's junior coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), he said: "I know that this is a bigger leap for you than it is for us. But let's complete this task together." He insisted that Germany remains a "tolerant country" which is "open to legal migration into our job market and society." German Chancellor Merz rejects criticism of border controls