Poland considers reinstating border controls with Germany, Lithuania amid migration concerns

ISTANBUL

Poland’s prime minister has announced that his government is considering reintroducing border controls with Germany and Lithuania due to rising concerns over illegal migration.

At a press conference, Donald Tusk said a security briefing would be held with officials from the Interior Ministry, border guard, military, and police to assess the overall situation at the country’s borders, Polish state-run news agency TVP World reported Monday.

“We have informed the German side that if questionable cases continue, we may be forced to restore controls on the Polish-German border," he said.

Tusk stressed that border security is one of the government’s top priorities.

He added that any decision would be implemented in a way that causes minimal inconvenience for Polish citizens, underlining that measures would also be taken to prevent illegal crossings into Poland from Lithuania.

In a separate press briefing, outgoing President Andrzej Duda also called on the government to act to prevent illegal migrants from being returned to Poland from Germany.

Duda criticized the government's lack of response to the pushbacks, saying: “We cannot allow the law to be broken and migrants to be forcibly pushed into our country. Germany created this migration problem and must deal with it on their own. We will not solve it for them.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of people calling themselves “citizen patrols” have been organizing protests in Polish border areas near Germany against migrants being returned by German authorities.

On Saturday, around 200 people blocked a road in the northwestern Polish city of Szczecin, saying they had gathered to prevent “German police from bringing in migrants.”