Warsaw (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Poland is set to implement temporary border controls with Germany and Lithuania starting July 7, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced Tuesday. This move follows a growing trend among European Union countries, which are reintroducing border checks to curb illegal immigration.
Poland’s liberal government has been criticized by nationalist opposition parties for taking in large numbers of illegal migrants who were deported from Germany. The government claims that these numbers are actually quite small.
Poland’s debate over migration has become increasingly heated in recent weeks, with far-right activists now organizing patrols along its border with Germany.
“We consider the temporary reintroduction of controls necessary to reduce the uncontrolled flows of migrants across the Polish-German border to a minimum,”
Tusk told a government conference. Germany said in February that it was extending its own temporary border controls for six months.
What did German Chancellor Friedrich Merz say regarding border checks with Poland?
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated on Tuesday that his country is committed to maintaining the EU’s Schengen open border system, which permits passport-free travel. However, he noted that this can only be achieved if the system isn’t exploited by criminals who traffic migrants.
“We know that the Polish government also wants to impose border controls with Lithuania in order to limit illegal border crossings from Lithuania to Poland,”
Merz told a news conference.
“So, we have a common problem here that we want to solve together.”
What triggered tensions over migration in Poland?
Poland has been confronting a migrant crisis along its eastern border with Belarus since 2021, which Warsaw claims is a form of hybrid warfare by the Belarusian and Russian governments to influence the EU over sanctions and other political issues.
Poland accuses Belarus of actively allowing and driving migrants, who mostly come from Middle Eastern and African countries like Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq, to the border of the EU in order to cause chaos and instability.
