Local mayors step up pressure to end border checks after crashes

The mayor of a border town has urged transport minister Vincent Karremans to hold talks with his German counterpart about border checkpoints following a string of serious accidents.

Four people have died in collisions near the border and at least 10 have suffered serious injuries since Germany reintroduced stricter checks in December 2024.

In the most recent incident last Friday, three people were injured in a crash involving four vehicles, including two lorries, on the A12 at Babberich, just before the border.

The German government has said it wants to extend the controls into the autumn, despite the implement of the European Migration Pact, which Dutch foreign minister David van Weel said would make the checkpoints “a thing of the past”.

Aad van Oosten, acting mayor of Zevenaar, urged Karremans to raise the issue with German interior minister Alexander Dobrint, who is a supporter of extending the controls.

“We have tried to raise awareness of our situation with other councils in the area, both in the Netherlands and Germany,” he told Omroep Gelderland. “All we get in reply is that there is no alternative.”

Chaos on roads

Van Oosten is not the first Dutch local politician to raise concerns about the impact of German border checks. In March Mark Boumans, mayor of Doetinchem, called for them to be scrapped following another five-vehicle collision, also at Babberich, in which three people were injured, including a child.

The following month Hubert Bruls, mayor of Nijmegen and chair of the council of Dutch regional safety boards, said the checks had cost millions of euros of damage and lost income and led to chaos on minor roads.

Bruls disputed the effectiveness of the checks after figures showed just under 3,500 people were suspected of trying to enter Germany illegally from the Netherlands and 1,750 were turned away at the border in six months.

Dutch officials checked the documents of 123,320 people at the border and turned 470 away in the first nine months after selected checks were introduced.

Van Oosten said the frequency of the accidents showed they could not be put down to inattentive motorists. “People should pay attention while driving, but this is a serious matter that is not as simple as just paying more attention,” he said.