Poland has temporarily reinstated border controls with Germany and Lithuania to ensure national security, Polish media reported on Monday, citing Interior and Administration Minister Tomasz Siemoniak.
“We are ready to implement the decision on temporary controls at the borders with Germany and Lithuania,” the media reported. To ensure temporary border controls, 52 checkpoints have been set up on the Polish-German border and 13 on the Polish-Lithuanian border.
The controls will be carried out by 800 border guards, 300 police officers, 200 gendarmerie officers and 500 soldiers from the territorial defence forces.
At a press conference on Saturday near the border, Siemoniak assured that this was not a step directed against Lithuanian citizens.
In turn, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said on Sunday that such measures were atypical for the European Union and considered them a temporary capitulation to the problem.
In 2023, Germany introduced border controls with Poland and the Czech Republic to combat illegal migration. Last year, it extended these measures to all its borders.
