German police provoke panic as border is abolished

Some German papers even talk of "panic" as Germans from towns along the Polish border fear a spike in crime and other unwelcome effects following the abolition of all border controls for people entering their country from Poland next month. One consequence is a boom in the local market for hardened doors and alarm systems. "Business is twice as good now. In the last few days alone I had several orders," says Thomas Seifert, owner of an alarm systems business in Frankfurt (Oder). According to some observers, the fears are being artificially stoked by police unions, which are protesting against job cuts resulting from the scrapping of border controls. They argue the border will be swamped by asylum seekers from non-EU countries and there will be an increase in theft, contraband and human trafficking. 300 police unionists protested in Berlin yesterday with placards that read "Yes to open borders, no to allowing in criminals and terrorists." "The policemen are really concerned about jobs and the talk of increased crime is wildly exaggerated. But people are buying it," says Dietrich Schroder, a journalist with a local paper in Frankfurt-on the-Oder. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 12; Rzeczpospolita, p. A11 ) R.M.