Poland Begins Border Checks, Sends 5,000 Troops in Migration Dispute With Germany

Poland will reintroduce controls on its land borders with Germany and Lithuania from 7 July, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after a cabinet meeting in Warsaw. The move follows months of tension over irregular migration and mirrors measures Berlin has enforced on the Polish frontier since October 2023. “There is no other way,” Tusk told reporters, arguing that the checks are needed to curb undocumented crossings that have risen along secondary routes from Belarus and Latvia.

Under the order, officers will carry out spot inspections at 52 crossings, focusing on buses, vans and cars with multiple passengers or tinted windows. The regime is slated to run for 30 days—until 5 August—but can be extended. Travellers must carry passports or national ID cards, though Warsaw says it aims to keep traffic moving for commuters and freight.

The General Staff announced the deployment of about 5,000 troops and surveillance drones to back up the Border Guard, underscoring the political salience of migration ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections. Business groups and regional officials warn of longer queues and higher logistics costs for the roughly 27,000 Polish residents who commute daily to jobs in eastern Germany.

Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak has offered to scrap the checks if Berlin lifts its own controls, framing Warsaw’s action as a “reciprocal” step rather than a permanent shift. The dispute adds to a growing patchwork of national border measures that critics say erodes the Schengen free-travel zone; ten EU member states now maintain at least some form of internal frontier controls. Brussels has been notified, but the European Commission has so far raised no formal objections.