Illegal entries from Poland: police union calls for border controls

According to a report, the chairman of the Federal Police Union, Teggatz, has called for temporary border controls with Poland. Otherwise, there is a risk of a “collapse” at the borders because of the high number of illegal entries.

The Federal Police Union has spoken out in favor of temporary border controls at the German-Polish border because of the increasing number of refugees on the so-called Belarus route. One of the reasons for this is a high number of unauthorized entries.

“The number of apprehensions has been rising almost explosively for several months,” warns the chairman of the Federal Police Union, Heiko Teggatz, in a letter to Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU). Only with the introduction of temporary border controls can the federal government prevent a “collapse” at the borders like in 2015, “Bild” quotes from the letter.

Teggatz: Controls don’t solve problems

“Our colleagues are also exposed to a considerable health risk, since the SARS-Cov-2 infections, especially in the countries of origin of the migrants (Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, etc.), are still very high and only are very rarely recorded by the authorities, “Teggatz continues. Hygiene regulations, as is common in Germany and Europe, would of course not be adhered to in the “smuggling process”.

Teggatz also admits in the letter that the “overall problem” cannot be solved by temporary border controls. The fact is that the Belarusian “dictator Alexander Lukashenko is reacting to the sanctions of the EU with the state-organized smuggling”. Europe should not get involved in such “games”, warned Teggatz.

EU suspects retaliatory action by Lukashenko

Lukashenko announced at the end of May that Minsk would no longer prevent migrants from continuing to travel to the EU – in response to tightened Western sanctions against his country. Since then, reports of attempted illegal border crossings at the EU’s external borders with Belarus and at the German-Polish border have increased. Since August, thousands of migrants – mostly from the Middle East and Africa – have tried to cross the Polish border from Belarus.

The EU also assumes that Lukashenko will retaliate against sanction decisions taken in Brussels. It is believed that the Belarusian authorities are bringing the migrants into the country and smuggling them to the borders with the eastern EU states. In addition to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia also complain about the increased arrival of migrants at their borders with Belarus.