Poland introduces border controls: concerns about German-Polish relations!

Poland introduces border controls: concerns about German-Polish relations!

On July 7, 2025, Poland introduced border controls on the border with Germany and Lithuania. The official aim of this measure is to combat smugglers and illegal migration. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt considers the controls to be unproblematic and successful and sees them as an important step in joint action against illegal migration. The controls are temporary for the time being and are intended to reorganize migration. Poland has manned 52 border crossings with a total of 800 police officers, 200 border guards and 500 soldiers to carry out this task. Tomasz Siemoniak, the interior minister, said the checks were proceeding without incident.

Although, according to a ZDF reporter, traffic was moving smoothly because the checks are random, MEP Erik Marquardt from the Greens expressed concern about the further measures, while Knut Abraham, the federal government's commissioner for Poland, warned of possible negative effects on German-Polish relations. He pointed out that tightening controls is not the solution to the migration problem. This is also made clear by the police union (GdP), which criticized the disproportionate effort involved in the controls and warned of long traffic jams during the holiday season.

The current situation at the borders

Since October 2023, there have been stationary controls again at three crossings on the German-Polish border: A15 near Forst, A12 near Frankfurt (Oder) and the Frankfurt city bridge to Slubice. These measures were introduced to address the overwhelming burden on municipalities caused by the influx of people seeking protection. The Alliance 90/The Greens faction in the Brandenburg state parliament has commissioned the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (Dezim e.V.) to examine the effectiveness of border controls.

Between October 2023 and February 2024, 23,000 unauthorized entries were detected during these internal border controls - more than three times as many as in September 2023. According to the report, the number of unauthorized entries fell after October, but this is attributed to the use of alternative routes. In October 2023, 245 people were rejected at the Brandenburg-Polish border without having previously submitted an asylum application. The standstill is not just due to the authorities - Emanuela Falenczyk, integration officer for the city of Frankfurt (Oder), expresses concerns about the accessibility of the Polish police and the lack of staff.

Mixed results and outlook

In 2024 as a whole, the number of asylum applications in Germany fell to around 250,900, a decline of around a third compared to 2023. The number of unauthorized border crossings into Germany also fell by 36%. However, migration researchers do not believe that there is a direct connection between border controls and refugee numbers. In the EU as a whole, asylum applications fell from 1.14 million to around one million (a decrease of 11.6%).

The fluctuation in these numbers shows that refugee migration has become more dynamic and diverse. Currently, many people are being forced to find new routes to get to Europe as migration routes quickly adapt to new controls. The European Union has also negotiated agreements with North African states that also contribute to reducing the number of refugees.

Overall, the issue of migration in the context of border controls remains high on the political agenda. The question of how these developments affect German-Polish relations remains exciting and is of great interest to people in the region.