EU nation slams neighbor’s plan to stem migration

Germany’s stricter border control will worsen relations, Poland’s Foreign Ministry has said

The German government’s decision to tighten border controls is an “unfriendly act” towards neighboring Poland that could worsen the two countries’ relations, the Polish Foreign Ministry has warned.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government announced this week that Germany would begin checking passports along its land border with several EU nations for at least six months, without regard to the Schengen agreement. Berlin said the decision, which is set to come into force on September 16, was taken in order to curb “irregular migration.” 

“We found out about the border closure out of the blue, there was no warning,” Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Teofil Bartoszewski told local Radio Zet on Friday. “You don’t act like that with friends or neighbors,” he said.

Berlin’s “surprise move will cause chaos on the borders,” Bartoszewski predicted, promising a response from Warsaw.

Asked whether EU members could also close their borders with Germany, the Polish deputy foreign minister stated that consultations between countries are probably already underway because this is “unacceptable” to many of them.

Germany has a 3,700km long land border with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland. All are members of the EU Schengen Zone.

The EU’s largest economy remains the top destination for asylum seekers. Germany received almost a third (over 351,000) of all asylum applications across the bloc in 2023.

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Germany tells EU it can’t take any more migrants

German federal police reported a 33% rise in illegal border crossings last year, with most migrants coming from Syria, Türkiye, and Afghanistan. Law enforcement authorities also said that violent crime in the country soared in 2023, with a sharp rise in the proportion of crimes being committed by foreigners.

The tougher border controls come as “the German government seeks to improve its image within the country … but its foreign policy is becoming a hostage of domestic policy,” according to Bartoszewski.

Speaking about Germany’s worsening situation with immigration, the Polish deputy foreign minister said that Berlin “has only itself to blame, because first it opens the borders and says ‘willkommen’ and we can accept any number of refugees,” adding that former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy has turned out to be “disastrous.” 

During Merkel’s tenure, Germany welcomed more than 1.2 million refugees and asylum seekers at the height of the EU’s 2015-16 migrant crisis. Merkel later faced public backlash over her so-called open-door refugee policy.