Poland Announces Extension of Border Controls with Germany, Lithuania

(MENAFN) Poland has announced a six-month extension of temporary border checks along its frontiers with Germany and Lithuania, pushing the expiry date to October 1 as Warsaw doubles down on efforts to stem irregular migration and disrupt smuggling networks operating across its territory.

The Interior Ministry confirmed the decision Saturday, stating the prolongation was essential due to "the need to counteract illegal migration and ensure internal security." The controls, which had been scheduled to lapse on April 4, were first introduced last July and have been renewed multiple times since.

Under the current arrangement, border officers are deployed at 52 designated checkpoints along the German frontier and 13 points on the Lithuanian border, where they are empowered to halt vehicles and demand identification from travelers. Key crossings subject to checks include Swiecko, Olszyna, and Kolbaskowo in the west, and Budzisko and Ogrodniki in the northeast.

The government frames the measures as a necessary barrier against migrants — primarily those who entered the EU via Belarus and Lithuania — from continuing westward through Poland into Germany and other western European destinations. Deputy Interior Minister Czeslaw Mroczek stated at the time of the original rollout that the objective was to maintain "control over the east-to-west migration traffic" traversing Polish territory.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has repeatedly pointed the finger at Berlin's own border policies, arguing that Germany's practice of turning back migrants at its frontier has displaced pressure directly onto Poland, compounding the challenge for Warsaw.

Poland has long maintained that Belarus and Russia have been deliberately engineering migration pressure along the EU's eastern flank since 2021, allegedly encouraging migrants from the Middle East and Africa to travel to Belarus and attempt illegal crossings into neighboring member states. Both Minsk and Moscow have denied the accusations.

The extension is consistent with a wider erosion of the Schengen zone's passport-free norms across the continent. Germany has maintained its own checks along the Polish border since 2023, and last month confirmed those controls would remain in place for an additional six months. Under the Schengen Code, EU member states may temporarily reinstate internal border checks when they determine that a credible threat to public order or national security exists, with renewals permissible in six-month increments.

The policy has not come without economic cost. Freight carriers and business associations have raised alarms over mounting delays at key road and rail crossings, with haulage firms reporting truck waiting times exceeding one hour at certain checkpoints during peak periods — a friction that has drawn concern from logistics operators reliant on seamless cross-border trade flows.

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