Poland is temporarily reinstating border controls with Germany and Lithuania. Hereʼs why

Poland is introducing temporary border controls with Germany and Lithuania from July 7 due to rising tensions over illegal immigration.

This was reported by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, according to the Polish publication WP Wiadomości.

He said the decision was made because of Germanyʼs new policy of refusing to accept migrants. However, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz denied that migrants were being regularly returned from Germany to Poland. He called for cooperation between the two governments on migrants.

Donald Tusk emphasizes that temporary border controls should "minimize uncontrolled flows of migrants across the Polish-German border".

The checks that Warsaw is planning to introduce are no exception. Since July 1, 11 of the 29 Schengen countries, including Austria, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, have notified the European Commission of plans to temporarily reintroduce border controls. The list does not yet include Belgium, which previously said it would introduce entry checks in the summer to stop illegal migration.

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