The German region of Baden-Wüttemburg has seen a dramatic increase in the number of asylum seekers smuggling themselves into the country on freight trains and has vowed stricter border controls as a result.
The federal police, who are responsible for managing the border, say they have greatly increased their operations along the rail networks in the region Die Welt reports.
The primary focus of the police operation will be along the railway line from Baden in Switzerland to Karlsruhe, one of the busiest freight lines in Europe.
The federal police say that last year they found only a few cases of migrants hiding in freight cars in the region but so far this year they have counted 254 migrants, most coming to Germany from northern Italy according to a police spokeswoman.
Other regions in Germany, such as Bavaria have experienced similar issues with migrants hiding on freight trains in the past as well but say the problem has been substantially reduced due to stricter controls on departing trains by Italian officials.
In 2016, Austria also reported a surge in migrants arriving in the country by freight trains, with some migrants in the winter months suffering from frostbite while a man from Eritrea was found dead after being hit by an oncoming train.
While the number of asylum seekers coming into Germany has substantially decreased since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, the country still remains one of the prime targets for migrants coming into Europe from Africa and the Middle East.
Last year Germany saw 186,644 asylum applications with 47,434 of them coming from Syria which has seen the largest share of asylum seekers since 2015.
Since the formation of the German grand coalition government earlier this year, Interior Minister and leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) Horst Seehofer has proposed refusing to allow migrants without passports or identification papers into the country.
The proposal caused a major row with his coalition ally Chancellor Angela Merkel leading to a near collapse of the government. Both sides were able to come together at the last hour and come to a compromise which has since seen the rollout of so-called anchor centres designed to streamline the asylum process and deport those without a valid claim.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.