BERLIN, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Police in Germany and neighboring Austria are conducting joint border controls from Friday onwards in an effort to reduce illegal immigration.
Commenting on the launch of the new initiative, Thomas Borowik, spokesperson for the regional headquarters of the German Federal Police Office in Munich, expressed hope that cross-border collaboration would facilitate the work of Germany and Austrian security forces alike.
"We want to stop dangerous attempts to enter the country illegally on cargo trains early on and thus prevent accidents," Borowik said.
The police spokesperson highlighted that migrants "repeatedly put their lives at risk", especially when trying to hide in rail cargo shipments in the extensive and heavily-frequented system of mountain tunnels on the Austrian-Italian border.
Around 1,000 refugees were discovered in the area covered by Borowik's division of the German Federal Police Office in 2017.
Under the new initiative, Germany and Austria will participate in regular joint searches and inspections at both the German-Austrian and Austrian-Italian borders with a focus on rail traffic.
Official figures indicate that the number of illegal border crossings on the German-Austrian border are well below their peak recorded during the 2015 refugee crisis and have continued to decline further in recent months.
Some 3,800 illicit attempts to enter Germany were recorded in the first four months of the current year, 2,100 of which were turned back by police at the border.