Migration: Double control at the German-Polish border

Poland’s border protection has started its announced controls on the border with Germany with a large personnel requirement. A few hours later, Poland Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak drew a positive record of the temporary controls, which were also arranged for the Polish-Lithuanian border. “Everything is going without incidents, the traffic has been flowing smoothly so far,” he told the broadcaster TVN24 after a conversation with the boss of the border protection.

As the Interior Ministry announced on X, travelers have been checked at 52 border crossings since midnight. Most of them react calmly. But some commuters and buyers doubt the meaningfulness of the measure.

Quickly over the border to refueling

At a control point in Krajnik Dolny, the military police supported by the military police with police vests with the drivers coming from the direction of the Brandenburg city of Schwedt – such as Germans who want to recharge their batteries in Poland before the start of their working day. Trucks are not checked here.

At the transition between Frankfurt/or to Slubice, the officials usually wave vehicles with Polish license plates on the border. Cars with German license plates are stopped briefly. Pedestrians are consistently checked here. Cyclists also have to show their papers.

A banner with the slogan “No! Immigration” hangs right next to the control point. It comes from the right -wing radical “movement to defend the borders”, which calls for self -empowered border patrols. On the oncoming lane, towards Germany, where many commuters are on the road and the federal police checked randomly, there is significantly more traffic early in the morning.

In view of the temporary controls at Poland’s border with Germany, the ADAC will expect traffic jams for holiday travelers. The start of the holiday in Berlin, Brandenburg or Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is becoming a “indicator”, says an ADAC spokesman. The summer vacation begins in the three countries at the end of July. In Saxony, which has a border with Poland, they started a few days ago. For the time being, the traffic impairments are manageable, said the ADAC spokesman in the morning.

Poland Interior Minister: Controls against Schleuser

“The controls are directed against those who are involved in the illegal smuggling of migrants across the border. Normal travelers have nothing to fear,” says Poland’s Minister of the Interior, according to a post of his authority. The border guards particularly have minibuses, cars with many inmates and vehicles with tinted windows. Those who have tinted windows also attract attention when it comes to controls by the federal police.

1,800 men and women in action

According to the Ministry of the Interior, around 800 border guards, 300 police officers, 200 military police officers and 500 members of the volunteer homeland protection associations are involved in the controls on both national borders. Men and women in Flecktarn with yellow west stop travelers.

At the Pomeelle border crossing on the A11 towards Szczecin, the traffic runs smoothly in the morning. The Polish officials did not control on the highway itself, but in the parking lot of a petrol station directly on the border. Not all drivers are waved out. Traffic also rolls on the opposite side towards Germany. The German authorities have set up a control route on the site of the customs office. All vehicles are diverted there, but not everyone is stopped.

Controls for the time being until the beginning of August

The Polish controls should initially last until August 5. If you want to cross the border, you have to have a identity card or a passport. At 13 border crossings to Lithuania is also checked. There, the Polish border guards arrested an Estonian citizen in the early morning. According to the information, he had four people from Afghanistan in the car who wanted to enter irregularly. The Afghans are to be rejected according to Lithuania, the driver is still interrogated.

The center-left government in Warsaw ordered the controls in response to German border controls. Germany has been checking randomly on the border with Poland since October 2023 to stop irregular migration.

Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) had more intensive border controls shortly after the new Federal Government started in May. At the same time, he ordered that asylum seekers can also be rejected at the border in the future. The rejections from Germany are a stimulus topic in Poland – also because right -wing activists have spread the rumor, German officials transported asylum seekers who have not been in Poland before.

Dobrindt offered his Polish counterpart in his own words on the German side of the common border. So far, however, this offer has not been accepted. For July 18, the Federal Minister of the Interior invited his counterpart from France, Poland, Austria, Denmark and the Czech Republic as well as the EU Commissioner for the Interior and Migration, Magnus Brunner, to a “migration summit” on the Zugspitze.

Representatives of German business associations in the border area had pointed out negative consequences of inpatient border controls for goods and commuter traffic before the start.

Government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said that the goal was a better EU external border protection. The internal controls are just a temporary measure. “We don’t want permanent border controls,” he emphasized. One is well aware of the effects of these controls.

The chairwoman of the Greens parliamentary group, Britta Haßelmann, wrote on X: “The introduction of Polish border controls are the result of national solo on all German borders.”

Not all commuters and buyers are convinced

Andreas Ewald from Berlin, who buys in Osinow Dolny on the “Polenmarkt Hohenwutzen”, says that he no longer employs employees from Poland in his glass and building cleaning company. Because for them the journey because of the federal police controls is so complex that it is no longer worth it. He does not believe that these controls can contain irregular migration. He says: “The gangs behind it, they find other ways.”

Oliver from Eberswalde is once a week for working in Schwedt and then drives to Poland to refuel. He says of the controls: “They actually bother me less, is reasonably good for the security that less is smuggled.” It is only difficult if the border guards do not speak German and you do not know what exactly they wanted. But as long as only the papers are checked and not the trunk, that’s okay, says the young man.