Poland will begin reinstating border checks with Germany and Lithuania, PM Donald Tusk announced on Tuesday, July 1st, after weeks of being slammed by the conservative opposition over his apparent impotence in addressing the growing crisis at the country’s western border.
The Prime Minister said the Interior Ministry is currently preparing the measure, which aims to “limit and reduce the uncontrolled flow of migrants back and forth.”
Tusk was mostly referring to illegal migrants crossing the border on their own, but, in reality, the move is a response to an ongoing scandal involving German police dumping illegal migrants into Poland. This practice has been going on for months. It is also becoming increasingly common in other countries bordering Germany, and, so far, local governments have done little to oppose it.
Like in the Netherlands, residents living in Polish border towns have grown tired of waiting for the state to act and have begun organizing under the so-called ‘Border Defense Movement’ to voluntarily patrol the border against illegal crossings and confront the German authorities who deliver the migrants.
The scandal peaked last week when two Polish volunteers were temporarily detained by the German police on Polish soil, prompting “hundreds” of others to show up in solidarity.
On Monday, Poland’s conservative president-elect, Karol Nawrocki, supported by the opposition PiS party, also raised his voice about the issue, accusing Tusk of doing nothing while residents are forced to act on their own.
And despite spending weeks dismissing the scandal as baseless “hysteria,” the prime minister appears to have acknowledged the issue after Nawrocki’s intervention. On Tuesday, the PM said he was in diplomatic talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and told him that “Poland’s patience in this matter is not unlimited.”
The issue is about whether the German police’s actions are even legal under the ‘Dublin regulations,’ which allow Schengen member states to return illegal migrants to the first country they set foot in. However, this requires mutually agreed cooperation between the two countries.
As the Dutch migration ministry recently confirmed, the German federal police have been performing both “hot” and “cold” transfers. The former refers to the pre-arranged transfer of migrants to local authorities, while the latter happens without any coordination and often involves secretive drop-offs during the dead of the night.
It’s unclear whether the German chancellor intends to stop these practices. In response to Tusk’s announcement, Merz only said Germany will be in “close cooperation with Poland in the field of border control,” implying that the temporary checks will solve the problem.
Merz also emphasized his commitment to preserving free movement within the Schengen area, but added that “it is only able to function if it is not abused by criminals who smuggle migrants.” There was no word about the questionable legality of the German police’s actions, though, leading many to question Tusk’s ability or willingness to put pressure on his German ally.
“The cardboard state has failed once again,” commented PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński. “Germany regularly transfers illegal migrants to our side. The [Polish] state has abdicated, and chaos and impunity are growing day by day,” he said a few days ago. He added that PiS will not leave the citizens alone in this struggle, and that MPs and activists of the party were also organizing a trip to the border to show their solidarity.
