Poland: Checks at the border with Germany from Monday

Poland wants to introduce temporary controls at the border with Germany. A corresponding order from the Ministry of the Interior will come into force next Monday, said Prime Minister Donald Tusk at a cabinet meeting in Warsaw. In future, checks will also be carried out at the border with the eastern neighboring country of Lithuania.

The move is a reaction to the German controls, said Tusk. "I warned the German side back in March and spoke to the new chancellor about this several times." The previous patient attitude of his country towards the unilateral controls could no longer be maintained due to the change in practice, which means that people are now also being sent back to Poland.

Germany has been carrying out random checks at the border with Poland since October 2023 in order to stop irregular migration. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) had ordered more intensive border controls shortly after the new federal government took office in May. At the same time, he ordered that asylum seekers could also be turned back at the border in future.

Ultra right-wingers in Poland organize self-appointed border patrols

The German government is sticking to this practice even after an urgent decision by the Berlin Administrative Court. The court had ruled that the rejection of three Somalis during a border check at Frankfurt (Oder) station on 9 May was unlawful. Without clarification as to which EU state was responsible for the asylum application of those affected, they should not be turned away. However, the Federal Ministry of the Interior under Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) considers this to be a case-by-case decision. The three people concerned were sent back to Poland.

In Poland, deportations from the neighboring country to the west are a hot topic. Tusk's center-left government is under pressure from the right-wing conservative opposition party PiS. "Germany regularly pushes illegal migrants to our side. The state has abdicated, and chaos and impunity are increasing by the day," wrote PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski on Monday on X.

Meanwhile, ultra-right-wingers from the "Movement for the Defence of Borders" are organizing self-appointed patrols at border crossings with Germany. They boast on social media that they stop suspicious-looking people and demand their papers. Tusk criticized this approach as disgraceful.