Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt called on the European Union (EU) to increase its funding to Poland to help it protect its borders with Belarus, stressing that Poland is safeguarding Europe’s borders against migrant inflows via Belarus. His remarks came during a visit to Poland, where he said: “This support should be financial. Poland also deserves greater recognition from the EU for securing its external borders.”
Poland’s Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said that Russia and Belarus are exploiting migration to send more migrants into Europe through Belarus. He stated: “We are making every effort to combat illegal immigration and to prevent migrants from reaching Poland and other EU countries.”
He also announced the completion of the barrier on the Belarusian border, whose construction began in 2022. The wall is about 700 kilometers long and spans the entire border with Belarus, including areas with lakes and rivers. According to Siemoniak, the wall has fully accomplished its mission.
The Baltic states have called on the European Union to support efforts to protect their shared borders with Russia and Belarus. The EU has previously accused Russia of using migrants to carry out “hybrid attacks” against Europe by facilitating their movement across Europe’s northern frontiers, particularly the border between Poland and Belarus.
During his visit to the border area with Poland, the German Interior Minister stressed that border controls will remain in place for the time being, adding that they will continue until they are effectively implemented along all of the EU’s external borders.
The German and Polish governments agreed that the border controls should be temporary, especially since the German border controls have sparked widespread protests in Poland, due to fears that Germany would return rejected asylum seekers to Poland. This prompted the Polish government to impose temporary border controls on its borders with Germany and Lithuania.
The president of the Federal Association of Foreign Trade, Wholesale, and Services warned of the negative impact that border controls could have on trade flows, stressing: “These controls should not become an obstacle to our economy. Businesses need planning security, which requires that goods and employees continue to move freely across borders.”
He argued that border controls are being used as a tool of political pressure and called for faster customs clearance procedures to facilitate the transport of goods, as well as stronger safeguards for supply chains and logistics.
