Overview

• Poland deployed about 1,500 security personnel, including police, gendarmerie and territorial army troops, to carry out random vehicle inspections at key crossings.
• Checks are active at 52 German and 13 Lithuanian entry points to deter undocumented migrants crossing from the north and west.
• Border guards detained an Estonian driver accused of smuggling four Afghan migrants near the Lithuanian frontier shortly after the controls began.
• Germany’s commissioner for Poland, Knut Abraham, warned that reciprocal restrictions risk creating a cycle of migrants being pushed back and forth.
• The move reflects domestic pressure from far-right citizen patrols and nationalist election gains and tests the resilience of Schengen free-movement rules.