POLAND HAS REINTRODUCED border controls with Germany and Lithuania, in what it says is a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Border guards and military police could be seen looking into passing cars and occasionally stopping vehicles for document checks on the bridge connecting the Polish town of Slubice with Frankfurt an der Oder in Germany.

The new checks – a response to growing anti-migrant sentiment on both sides of the border – will remain in place until at least 5 August, although the Polish government has not ruled out an extension.

In total, 52 checkpoints have been set up on the border with Germany and 13 with Lithuania. The controls will mostly consist of spot inspections, particularly of vehicles carrying several people, officials said.

Germany, Poland and Lithuania are all in the Schengen Area, which generally allows for the free movement of people without border checks. However, member states can temporarily reintroduce controls if they deem there is a threat to security.

Poland says hundreds of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, cross into the Baltic states from Belarus every month, then travel through Poland into Germany.

The issue has become a particularly sensitive one in Polish domestic politics and has led to tensions with Germany. Warsaw has accused Berlin of sending the irregular migrants it manages to intercept back into Poland.

“The German side is now actually refusing to authorise the entry of migrants heading to Germany to request asylum or obtain another type of status,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last Tuesday.

The border controls came into effect on Sunday, one month into the presidency of nationalist Karol Nawrocki – who ran on a slogan of “Poland first, Poles first”. Nowricki narrowly defeated the candidate backed by pro-EU Donald Tusk.

The Tusk government is now seeking to outflank its rivals by taking a tougher approach to immigration.

Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said the decision was taken to combat “illegal migration”. He said Poles and other EU nationals would not face inconvenience.

Earlier today, Polish border guards detained a man for assisting irregular migration.

The Estonian national is accused of transporting four irregular migrants, believed to be from Afghanistan.

Siemoniak said the detention was “proof that these checks are necessary”.

The controls on the Lithuanian border were introduced to stop migrants coming in from Belarus.

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Germany reintroduced temporary checks on the border with Poland in November 2023.

Nationalist and far-right politicians had accused Tusk’s government of having “abdicated” to Germany on migration and of allowing Berlin to overwhelm Poland with migrants.

In late June, members of a far-right party gathered at several points along the border to set up “citizens’ patrols”, which the government deemed illegal.

The German interior ministry last week said it would “do everything possible to find a good solution, a good joint solution”.

The Germans have proposed joint patrols, but the Poles have refused.

With reporting by AFP

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