Poland: controls at border with Germany until September 5

The temporary Polish border controls at the border with Germany are to remain in place until September 5 for the time being. This is the result of a draft decree published by the Ministry of the Interior in Warsaw. The controls will start next Monday, July 7. Poland also intends to carry out checks at the border with its eastern neighbor Lithuania during this period.

Poland's head of government Donald Tusk announced the border controls on Tuesday in response to German checks at the common border. He had made a possible end to this measure dependent on decisions by the German government. The German controls were actually due to end in September, but there was information that they would be extended, said the head of government. "Our response to this will also be symmetrical. The time is definitely over when Poland does not react appropriately to certain measures."

Germany has already been carrying out random checks at the border with Poland since October 2023 to stop irregular migration. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt 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.

Controls at 50 border crossings

The document now published by the Ministry of the Interior in Warsaw provides for controls at 50 crossings on the German-Polish border. Among other things, passenger and goods traffic will be checked around the clock on the A12 near Swiecko east of Frankfurt (Oder), on the A4 at the Ludwigsdorf-Jedrzychowice border crossing and on the A6 at the Pomellen-Kolbaskowo crossing. But pedestrians are also to be checked - for example on the beach promenade in Swinoujscie and on the city bridge in Frankfurt (Oder).