The German Border-Regime rests on three pillars. One of them is a foreign policy, namely, the German identification of Eastern neighbours as door-keepers of the EU. The second pillar is the armament of the German Border Police, the Bundesgrenzschutz (the BGS), which is a Federal Police, and its equipment with more and far-reaching powers. And finally, we have the growing involvement of the border-population in the border-control. There is also a fourth aspect, playing a role in this concept, but it is dealing only with those lucky people, who manage to secretly cross the border. The foreign administration and the German legislation upon asylum seekers and foreigners is part of a system, which is becoming more and more a means of keeping out any refugees and migrants or to freeze out those, who are already there.

A discussion of the first two points will give an idea of the German border policy before dealing with the main topic of the article: the involvement of the population in the chase of "illegals" and borderviolators.

Since the modification of the German Constitution in 1993 there is nearly no chance left for refugees to apply for asylum in Germany. The so called Save-Third-Country-Regulation makes it possible for the German administration to reject nearly every application for asylum immediately, because the asylum seeker came transiting across one of the neighbourstates. All the responsibility for dealing with migration and refugee movements is delegated by Germany and the EU to their Eastern neighbours which are faced with clear rules of well-behaving in order to get admission to the EU one day. The Model State in this relation of ordering and obeying is Poland. According to the German-Polish Agreement of May 1993, Poland got 120 million Deutschmarks for building and/or buying her own borderfacilities such as boats, helicopters and technical equipment, but also for creating a BGS-like border-police and establishing an own asylum-procedure. Since then spread a dense net of detention prisons for foreigners. For example 1,5 million DM were spent on the restoration of the detention in Leznowola, a guarded camp. Poland now has 25 detention camps for deportees. Not only the system of pulling out rejected asylumseekers or searching for secret immigrants by BGS was copied from the German system. A firm system of re-admission-agreements was also established with the neighbouring countries in the East, so that a process which could be called Domino-deportation occurred. People that were rejected or pulled back by the German BGS are transported - with or without a very long stay in a detention camp - to one of the Eastern neighbours as Belorus or Ukraine. In 1996 about 1500 persons, nearly a third of the altogether 5000 border-violators pulled back by the BGS, were immediately sent out by Poland to a neighbouring state or deported into their home country. Most of this domino-deportations are conducted in a 48-hour period. On the 27th of June 1997 the transport from the German border to the Ukrainian border ended up in a heavy accident in which two of the deportees died. The driver of the vehicle fell asleep after 14 hours non-stop-driving.

The new Polish asylum-and foreigners laws of 1997 make it even more difficult to apply for asylum in order to prevent a deportation. Poland is learning her lesson.

The same system works between Hungary and Austria, the keen new member of the sacred EU. Another thing with the same purpose is the re-admission-agreements, which Germany signed to a growing number of states to make deportation easier and quicker. The first re-admission-agreements were established with Poland in 1993, the Czech Republic in 1994, Romania in 1992 and Bulgaria in 1995. Secret immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria, who are arrested at the border are immediately transported to the airport Berlin-Schoenefeld and then turned back to the mentioned countries of origin.

Germany and the EU can put immense pressure on countries like Poland that want to join the EU. Only if they fulfill the security-demands of Western Europe they will be admitted to that sublime assembly. This is why they obey even humiliating conditions of this stick-and-carrot-policy. If everything works out well, there will be some words spoken in favour of the EU-aspirants.

The number of officers and administration personnel was increased to a higher extent. There were 2 400 BGS-officers in 1992. Today we have about 5800 Border-policemen and for the near future there a number of 7500 BGS-men can be predicted. These numbers are related only to the German eastern borders, which are supposed to be the borders with the highest density of guard in Europe or even in the world. There are on average 2,4 officers on duty per kilometer at the Polish and Czech borders (without the Bavarian-Czech border). At the US-Mexican border there are only 0.18 officers per kilometer. With the staff occupied in the BGS offices there are about 10 000 officers and employees on duty for the federal border-police at the eastern borders. Additionally there is since 1993 a border-police-support-unit of about 1 200 officers with employee-status. But there are even more officers doing service at this border, namely the customs officers and the ordinary state-police-forces. This figures may give you an impression that manpower Germany is ready to occupy the EU-border "watertight". The governmental budget for the BGS was increased from 1.3 billion DM in 1989 to over 3 billion DM in 1997. All in all the BGS has about 30 000 officers (in 1992: 24 500) in charge for what is called border-protection and "inner security".

We have to be aware when speaking of the border that it is no longer the borderline we are accustomed to, but it is a zone extending 30 kilometers further inland. In this security belt the BGS (and also customs) has the same powers as the state-police if not even more. It is allowed for them to inspect the ID papers of anyone without suspicion or even at any time, they can watch the houses and listen to their telephonlines and to raid any place declared as a "dangerous place". The newest changes of the BGS-law provide the same rights along larger transit roads and on railway stations (the BGS is the railway-police, too) and their surroundings.

The technical armament of the BGS is of the latest technology and it adds to the high standard of border-control that is established at the German Eastern borders. I would just mention some of these hardcore equipment. There are, for example, carbon-dioxide detectors that can measure if there is any breathing inside any container; there are the newest infra-red cameras and night-vision ones; there are certainly patrol boats on Odra and Neisse, and there are helicopters and more than 600 tracker dogs. In contrast, in Austria there is the army engaged in guarding the border mainly constituting of young and inexperienced men, doing their military service. They have to live in tents and to deal with arresting "illegal" immigrants. Moreover, Austria is working with ground radar at the borders.

There is also a high-tech computer system, the SIS or Schengen Information System. All over Germany alone there are 9 000 (in part mobile) terminals of this system. Germany has fed this gigantic system with the data of about 320 000 "unwelcome" people of the altogether 415 000. Germany ties all these computer-control-systems to a border-terminal-system, which is in use with nearly 700 terminals at the Eastern borders. The next step in this "progress" will be the finger-print-directory EURODAC.... But all these technical tools can not keep up with the "help" of the border population observing the borders.

Most of the statistics and figures come directly from the German border-police. They are extracted from the annual report of this institution. Other material is rarely available. The speaker of the BGS-center in Frankfurt/Oder in the state of Brandenburg pointed out in public, that 50 percent of all the arrests of secret immigrants are due to help of the border-population. The BGS-speaker of Rothenburg at the Neisse in the state of Saxony even spoke of 70 to 80 percents of the arrests due to German informers living in the border region revealing the trespassers. The FFM-team was stunned by these figures and tried to get some more information on the role ordinary people play in the border control. It tried to find out which emphasis the federal border-police puts on these volunteers and what kind of propaganda makes people find it right and necessary to denounce migrants and refugees.

In the media the picture of a flood of criminals waiting in the East to slosh into the EU to rob, steel and even murder, to destroy the social system, to take away the jobs of the righteous inhabitants and to bring in unmeasurable amounts of what is called "organized crime" penetrates the people's minds unfiltered, because there is nearly no critical, distinguishing approach to what flight and migration are in fact. There is some special kind of border-crime, no doubt, the circumstances are too inviting. But the continuous brainwashing of people (not only in the border region) results in fact that for every single stolen car or bicycle, for every burglary and every violent attack on someone the "foreigners", "die Auslaender", are blamed. Labeling immigrants and refugees who have no other legal possibility to enter the country with the word "illegal immigrants" or "illegals", people keep in mind that every secret border-crosser is a criminal. This fact makes it clear, that nobody asked for more information about these people, their motivation to flee or migrate, their lives and fates. What is more, every secret immigrant is identified with what was worked out to be a capital offense, namely trafficking. This official propaganda could be proved with uncounted articles in the press or ministerial announcements. The Minister of the Interior, Manfred Kanther (and nowadays his successor Otto Schily), was a hero of this kind of people, who set others in fear.

To make the effects of this propaganda clear one should take a closer look at the myth about racketeers and traffickers: the picture that media and official announcements draw of trafficking aliens is a picture of especially unscrupulous and brutal criminals that exploit the poorest of the poor, that are bringing in drugs, weapons and criminal energy into the country and that are likely to be a branch of the Russian mafia or any other mafia. The incidents and accidents in which refugees and migrants die, are useful for sustaining this image. No doubt, there are criminals involved in this business, there are women forced into prostitution or other people brought into a slave-like state of indenture. But - this is the result of FFM-research and asking refugees and migrants about there trafficking experience - the majority of all acts of trafficking aliens are responsibly planned and have the form of a real and regular business. The refugees are victims that were persuaded with false promises, deprived of all their families" scanty money and then forced into an extremely dangerous, illegal and exhausting trip to Western Europe to find themselves exposed to a racist society that does not welcome them. Fact is, however, that the trafficking agents work like other businessmen, they have to take care of their reputation, which could be spoilt by too many deported former clients of them. The price that people have to pay for to be brought to Germany from for example Sri Lanka ranges between 12 000 to 15 000 DM. People who decided to leave their home country try to collect this money in their family and this is often all available savings to buy a chance and a life-perspective of at least one family-member. Then they get in contact with the well-known agent and the plan is negotiated. Then comes the trip - by the way, most of the journey is legally done - via Moscow, Kiew or Vilnius to Poland and to the Polish-German border. Often only crossing this border is against the law. To give some comparison, there are sentences of the German Supreme Court, the Bundesgerichtshof, of the 1970s, in which the court holds it to be righteous to help people crossing the German-German border and to take fees up to 40 000 DM for this service. These traffickers were called "escape agents" then and it was a heroic deed to help one of the former GDR-inhabitants - the classical "refugee for economical reasons" - to cross the border illegally. There was even a special column for the fees for escape agent, that could be deducted from tax, in the German income-declaration-forms of these years

The BGS is doing his own advertising and propaganda in the border-region. They offer the so-called citizens" telephone for security. People can call the BGS from all over Germany on a charge-free service number all around the clock. In every newspaper near the border, on every single police-car and telephone box you can find this number encouraging people to report every suspicious move in their surroundings.

And all this is done despite the fact that there is no significant growth of any kind of crime near the border. On the contrary, in most of the towns and cities where the FFM was doing research, the crime rate is decreasing, often in 10-percent-steps a year. In 1997 the crime rate in the police-district of Frankfurt/Oder dropped, according to the official report, about 11 percent, in the city itself it went down 16.3 percent; in Gerlitz in East-Saxony there is a decrease of 27 percent. The BGS not only emphasizes the importance of his presence because of the extremely high crime rate but he at the same time claims to be responsible for its enormous decrease. If the decreasing rates are presented to the public, the BGS preferably talks about the "subjective security sense" of the people that requires the increase of police-density and control.

Fact is that the foreigners are blamed for nearly every crime. People even talk of the fear of moving around at night because of violent foreigners everywhere. This fear is especially absurd because the only people that are in danger of being attacked in this region are the foreigners, the "non-German looking" people themselves. To get more information on the growing danger of neo-nazi groups that control whole cities in Eastern Germany and play a important role in what could be called a racist atmosphere in the border region.

The result of this policy of fear is that the BGS can really count on the voluntary and active help of the people living near the border, without rewarding them. In times of unemployment rates around 20 percent, the BGS is also an interesting and popular employer. The numbers were mentioned above but there is another important fact that adds to the popularity of the BGS: the BGS today is an important part of everyday life. Many of the officers of the BGS live near the place of their work or are even part of the border population itself.

But there are several other phenomena that contribute to the idea of involvement of citizens into border-control by social technology. Everywhere near the border are popping up civic action groups that compose their own private border guards. With self-made uniforms, torches, binoculars, clubs and often even gas pistols adults are patrolling and standing post near the border during nighttime. The FFM got aware of this development after there was a scandalous racist harassment of a young boy on his way home at ten at night in Forst at the river Neisse. He was stopped by these self-appointed border guards with others and searched, because he was a person of color. The BGS was called, the young boy had to wait for half an hour for them to arrive and was released afterwards. After the mother of one of the children complained about this incident it got evident that BGS and police are working together closely and confidentially with these civic action groups. The BGS denied this cooperation when the whole thing became a real scandal. To calm everything down, these civic border-guards are now involved in a program of the home-secretary of Brandenburg, which is called security-guard and consists of civilians guarding their neighbourhoods. They have no weapons and are to call the police if there is a suspicion or incident. Such security-guards exist in about 50 villages in Brandenburg by now.

On an official level there are established what can be called denouncing-coalitions between the state-offices such as the labour-office and the social welfare, who work together closely in an informal manner to find illegal workers or persons without a legal status. There are also non-governmental institutions such as guilds and Chambers of Commerce. The BGS in Pirna, for example has met with representives of the taxi-guild of Saxony, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Dresden, politicians from border-communes and the county, the public prosecuters office and their colleagues from the state-police. They came to an agreement on how to work together to stop illegal immigration. The results of this meeting were opened to public. The background of this meeting in 1997 was a large wave of trials against taxi drivers in the county of Zittau-Luebau at the border-triangle of Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany in Eastern Saxony.

What happened there is the reverse of the medal of involvement of the border-population in border-control. Heavy sanctions by means of jurisdiction are imposed upon people who do not want to be deputy sheriffs of the border-police. There must be also some silent agreements between the three powers in order to improve the border-security. The courts in Zittau and Gerlitz play an important role in creating an atmosphere of threat near the border. Since 1996 there have been several sentences against taxidrivers that where accused in bringing illegal immigrants into the country not under one year without suspension! The circumstances of the trials are scandalous, not only because none of the drivers brought anybody across the border, but because prosecutors are only working with vague evidencies which are always interpreted not in favour of the accused taxi drivers. By now there are investigations against 22 of altogether 73 taxidrivers in that county. The first defendant, sentenced to 1½ years in prison without suspension and whose appeals all failed has been in jail for a half a year in the time of writing.

The idea of the prosecutors is the following: it is not necessary to really cross the border with illegal immigrants, but also to pick them up near the border and to bring them out to the 30-kilometer-zone of responsibility of the BGS. For example, to the next bigger city such as Bautzen, Dresden or even Berlin. It should be the taxidrivers" duty not only to recognize an alien without status, but also to refuse to provide service and/or to denounce the clients to the BGS. The previously mentioned meeting between BGS and among others the taxi drivers-guild included the edition of a flyer for the driving colleagues with some hints on what they should do. Having picked up some suspicious strangers they should either inspect the papers themselves - which is against the law, suspended for border-security - or call the BGS using a code word. Many taxidrivers from all over Germany protested against what this meant for the future. They are not willing or allowed to search their clients, they are obliged by law to transport every person regardless their status. Now they should for the interests of the border police suspect everyone that does not look like a German fellow-countryman, but seems to be an illegal alien. There have been protests in Gerlitz during the first trial. The author witnessed one trial in early 98, where the question "How is a taxidriver supposed to regonize the illegal bordercrosser" was asked and the prosecutor shouted: "These people were dressed in a typical Eastern European manner". This shows how a stranger is regarded by (social) discriminatory or even racist rules that refer only to the phenotypic appearance. These trials were absolutely ridiculous in what could be called juridical fairness as well as regarding a high principle like "in dubio pro reo". There are as well some appeals. What they are trying to do is to set a warning example against all people who refuse to play the game of border-control.

These taxi drivers now are put in jail, their driving licenses, concessions and the allowance to transport people are suspended, in short, the defendants, most of them very well-behaved citizens without any police record, have their lives ruined forever. And what for? For having transported illegal aliens. This act - done accidentally or on purpose - is made a capital offense, which is in regard of the actual damage they have done is unbearable. These scandalous verdicts prove that it is not an independent jurisdiction but a conscious help for "inner security" and border control.

The resulting atmosphere near the border makes it possible that things like that can happen without anybody attracting public attention to this atrocity. A group of twelve people from Kosovo crossed the border secretly during the night of the 15th of May 1998 near Schwedt. Some resident informed the BGS. The Federal border guard stopped the trespassers at 11.30 p.m. All of them were arrested, only one young Kosovo-Albanian could flee. And what happened then is unbelievable. For more than four hours a "hunting crew" consisting of the BGS, the state police, the customs and the local fire-brigades equipped with cars, dogs, helicopters and lighting was chasing that poor refugee. After several hours the hunted man tried to break free by swimming across a near-by canal, just next to the bridge where BGS-officers were posted, and in his exhaustion he drowned and died. One should keep in mind what his crime was: this refugee was only crossing the border illegally. And what is also shocking, is that this incredible tragedy was not mentioned in the national press, only in the local newspaper. And this is every-day life at the German borders. It shows the lack of human orientation, that society has reached by now.

The FFM has documented the sad list of victims of the German border-regime and foreigners' policy: 88 refugees died at all borders, 67 at the Eastern borders; 54 detainees committed suicide because of their upcoming deportation, at least 95 were seriously injured when trying to do so; 4 refugees died during the deportation, 33 deportees were injured; 4 people were killed in their home countries after the deportation, at least 86 were arrested, maltreated or even tortured by military- or police-officers in their country of origin, 11 of the deported disappeared traceless.