Polish border guards patrol the area of a newly built metal wall on the border between Poland and Belarus, near Kuznice, Poland, on June 30, 2022. (source: TASR/AP)
Poland will check selected vehicles at the border with Slovakia due to increased illegal migration.
Though Poland and Slovakia are members of the EU’s border-free Schengen zone, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki instructed his interior minister on Monday, September 25, to reintroduce border checks.
“In this way, no one can accuse us of having a leaky border,” Morawiecki said.
Polish border guards will check suspicious mini-vans, vans, passenger cars and coaches. It has not been specified when these controls should begin.
Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki in Lublin, Poland, on September 25, 2023. (source: Facebook)
On September 26, the Slovak Interior Ministry noted that the Polish announcement is not the official decision for now.
Poland returns Syrians to Slovakia
Slovakia has seen a rise in the influx of illegal migrants, in part due to a confirmation letter, which the Foreigners’ Police are obliged to issue for migrants following an amendment adopted by the third Smer government a few years ago. Illegal migrants are believed to know about these letters. They grant them the temporary right to stay in Slovakia. However, they wrongly believe that they can move freely around Europe with the letter. Another reason behind increased illegal migration is Hungary’s refusal to honour a readmission agreement with Slovakia, as well as the worsening situation on the Hungarian-Serbian border.
On September 22, the Polish Border Guard wrote that it detained 16 Syrians with the aforementioned letters on its territory. They were returned to Slovakia.
Morawiecki’s decision comes several days after Germany announced that it was considering establishing temporary border checks with Poland and the Czech Republic, in addition to the deployment of joint German-Czech police patrols on the Czech territory.
Moreover, illegal migration is said to be one of the key topics in the upcoming Polish elections, scheduled for October 15. The Prawo i Sprawiedliwość party has recently published an anti-immigration video on social media.
