Poland is set to deploy thousands of troops to the boarder with Germany to stop Berlin from sending back failed asylum seekers.
A spokesman from the Polish general staff said around 5,000 troops would be stationed at the borders of Germany and Lithuania from Monday to check vehicles for refugees.
Officers could also use surveillance drones operated by the Polish air force to monitor the area, reports The Telegraph.
Tensions have flared between governments in Warsaw and Berlin over how to deal with refugees trying to cross between the two countries.
German federal police watch over cars arriving at the German-Polish border
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Prime Minister Donald Tusk survived a no confidence vote
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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s liberal government has been accused by opposition parties of accepting numerous illegal migrants being sent back from Germany.
Tusk survived a confidence vote in the Polish parliament following the surprise election of pro-Donald Trump candidate Karol Nawrocki in this year’s Presidential election,
President-elect Nawrocki campaigned on a promise to ensure economic and social policies favour Poles over other nationalities, including Ukrainian refugees.
Prime Minister Tusk said: “We consider the temporary restoration of controls at the Polish-German border necessary to limit and reduce to a minimum the uncontrolled flows of migrants back and forth.”
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Polish president-elect Karol Nawrocki
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The symbol of the “We Defend the Polish Border” movement
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German interior minister Alexander Dobrindt responded to Poland’s announcement by suggesting the two countries could collaborate on joint border control.
However, this was swiftly turned down by Warsaw, as defence minister Waldemar Kosiniak-Kamysz told local media: “The minister from Germany will not tell us what to do in Poland. With sympathy, with respect, but we will protect Polish borders ourselves.”
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys told a news conference that the Polish government had informed him about its decision.
He said: “(We need to see) what measures should be most effective, while maintaining the expectation that they will not violate our common interest in having free movement of persons, and will also contribute to our goal of firmly and solidly protecting the external border of the EU and Nato.”
Minister Of Foreign Affairs Of Lithuania Kestutis Budrys
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The German government’s commissioner for Poland Knut Abraham was critical of the tilt towards border restrictions.
He said: “The solution cannot lie in pushing migrants back and forth between Poland and Germany or in cementing border controls on both sides.”
Poland has been facing what it says is a migrant crisis orchestrated by Belarus and Russia on its eastern border since 2021.
Both Moscow and Minsk deny encouraging migrants to cross.
