Poland has activated border controls at dozens of crossing points with Germany and Lithuania, apparently after being embarrassed by citizen vigilantes taking on border defence roles themselves where they said the government had failed.
Polish border guard teams, reinforced by local police and soldiers, stood post at 52 crossing points along the German border and a further 13 with Lithuania in the early hours of Monday morning amid the enactment of temporary border controls. The controls are due to last 30 days, but the Polish government hasn’t ruled out extending them.
The checks come amid a growing disagreement between Berlin and Warsaw stemming from the European Union’s project to maintain totally open internal borders, allowing the unfettered movement of people, combined with imperfect external border controls, which in combination often enables the free movement of illegal migrants across the continent.
As alleged, Russia and Moscow-allied Belarus have now spent years bussing illegal migrants to Poland’s eastern frontier, telling them if they are able to break through into the European Union, they will be able to continue unopposed to high-welfare-paying Germany. Poland has invested in considerably strengthening its eastern border, but Berlin has been running vehicle checks with Poland and has even engaged in migrant ‘push-backs’, trapping migrants who want to head West in Poland itself.
Starting on Monday, Poland began to reciprocate border checks, at least in part because Germany has attempted to send migrants heading West back to Poland again.
A border guard spokesman said the enhanced roadside checks, focussing on high-priority vehicles like buses, multiple-occupancy cars, and cars with heavily tinted windows, are already paying dividends, with an Estonian driver allegedly smuggling four “probably Afghan” illegal migrants being detained at the Lithuanian border.
Polish publisher Polsat News cited Minister of the Interior Tomasz Siemoniak, who is reported to have said: “We will do everything to ensure that these random checks are as convenient as possible for the citizens of Poland, Lithuania and the citizens of the European Union… only those vehicles that raise suspicion that illegal migrants may be travelling in them will be checked.” His remarks appear to be in response to claims from across the border that the checks are explicitly intended to punish German truckers and commuters to get back at their government for trying to push migrants to Poland.
Germany’s Die Welt reports that business owners in border-facing areas have decried delays and called for a dedicated fast lane for free passage for regular, known travellers — such as delivery trucks belonging to local businesses and daily commuters.
France’s Le Figaro calls the return to border controls between Germany and Poland a “new crisis” for the European Union’s border-free Schengen zone but notes the Polish government’s sudden enactment of border controls — announced last week — may be more about managing domestic politics than international. Indeed, in recent months, citizen volunteers have been engaging in border control vigilantism, and the criticism from the liberal Tusk government has been more focused on Poles taking matters into their own hands than the German authorities accused of pushing migrants into Poland.
Led by Polish nationalist activist Robert Bąkiewicz, the ‘Border Defence Movement’ (‘ROG’) vigilantes claim they are working to “defend our civilisation” from a government that is failing in its basic duties, with “citizen checks” at border crossing points. In a statement in April relaying a 24-hour patrol staged by ROG, a spokesman said: “Our actions are aimed at drawing attention to the problem of illegal migration and the lack of real border control by the Polish state. We stand guard over the security of our borders and the right of Poles to live without fear. We do not consent to the inaction of the authorities”.
In a separate statement at that time, the ROG described the problem as they perceived it thusly: “Immigrants invited to Germany by the German authorities, who instead of working and paying taxes preferred to commit crimes in Germany… Instead of sending these immigrants back to their home countries in Africa and Asia, the Germans came up with the idea of bringing them to Poland so that Poles could discover the joys of cultural enrichment.”
In some cases, ROG said, because of their watching of the border, they had uncovered and recorded bad-faith actions by German authorities pushing migrants over the border. In some cases, left-leaning Polish media has attacked the ROG groups, accusing them of criminal acts, including illegally detaining suspected illegal migrants. Allegations were also made particular attention was being paid to the cars of young women, suggesting the group was motivated by sexual interest.
The vigilante group, in turn, has maintained that no evidence has been produced to substantiate such claims and that they were only aired to discredit the movement.
On Monday, the Polish government again signalled its displeasure at the border vigilantes, saying that far from protecting the borders, they were actually hindering the work of the national border police, which have now been deployed. Deputy Minister of Interior and Administration Czesław Mroczek, as reported by Polsat News, asserted that the left-wing government had been very effective in curtailing illegal migration and accused the ROG movement of trying to politicise the border.
“They hinder the functioning of our services – Border Guard officers and police,” he said.
Warsaw’s approach differs from past examples of citizens policing borders in Europe. Breitbart London reported back in 2016 on a vigilante border patrol in Bulgaria when a local man was hailed as a “superhero” by national media for using his spare time to look for illegal migrants crossing into Europe from Turkey on his ATV.
He said at the time: “This is our country. Only jihadists, Syrians and the Taliban are trying to enter. In three sorties since August I’ve captured 25 men. Imagine how many people have passed through there in the rest of the time… if we don’t help ourselves, no one else will”.
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