Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration Mariusz Kaminski announced that Poland resumed border controls at crossings with Slovakia. The regulations came into force at midnight from 3 to 4 October.

Eleven border crossings will be established on the border with Slovakia. The EU law stipulates that in the event of an emergency, controls can be reinstated for 10 days. Mariusz Kaminski announced that temporary controls will be extended if necessary. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MSWiA), illegal migration and the number of migrants disclosed within Slovakia has increased by almost a thousand percent compared to last year.

Kaminski noted that the decision of the Polish interior ministry had been communicated to the interior ministries of Slovakia, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic, as well as to the European Commission, in accordance with the Schengen Code.

“It will be implemented in the least burdensome way possible for our citizens and for the citizens of the European Union. It will be a border control on entering Poland”, said Minister Kamiński.

The head of the interior ministry also announced that he had held a conversation with the Czech interior minister on Monday afternoon, and that the Czech authorities would also soon decide on controls at the border with Slovakia.

“Our actions must be effective and the Balkan route, one of whose branches goes through Poland, towards Western Europe, will be effectively blocked”, he pointed out.

Mariusz Kaminski assessed that Poland had to take such measures because it is a ‘responsible state’.

“As far as our eastern border is concerned, these actions on the border with Belarus are being taken very effectively. This is also the external border of the EU and we expect that this problem of the Balkan route, which is a problem of the entire region, of the entire European Union, will be comprehensively solved and that other countries will join our actions”, says Kaminski.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński