Changing the situation on the “Balkan route”. New rules from Sunday
The head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Marcin Kierwiński, announced the end of temporary controls on the Polish-Slovak border. The checks will last until midnight on March 2, 2024, but may be resumed if necessary.
“We are ending temporary checks on the Polish-Slovak border. Traffic monitoring remains. I would like to thank the Border Guard for their professional actions,” wrote the Minister of Interior and Administration, Marcin Kierwiński, in a short post on social media.
The announcement on the ministry's website emphasizes that the inspections will last until midnight on March 2, 2024. The decision of the head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration is due to the stabilization of the migration situation in the so-called the Balkan route and the disappearance of the threat of illegal migration on the Polish-Slovak section of the state border.
Marcin Kierwiński decided. Temporary control on the Polish-Slovak border completed
“As part of cross-border cooperation, the migration situation will be monitored on an ongoing basis and if the threat increases, control activities at the border may be resumed,” added the Ministry of the Interior and Administration.
The ministry concluded that “the Border Guard will continue to conduct inspections within the country aimed at combating illegal migration on main communication routes and in other selected places.” On February 28-29, Border Guard officers checked 12.6 thousand at the border with Slovakia. people and 6.8 thousand vehicles.
Border Guard checks on the border with Slovakia. How did this happen?
At the end of September 2023, the then head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Mariusz Kamiński, announced that “the Border Guard has introduced permanent and ad hoc controls on the Polish-Slovak border of buses and other vehicles that may transport illegal migrants from this direction.”
Former Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska explained then that within a year, illegal migration in the section with Slovakia had increased from 60 to almost 450 cases. Controls on the border between Poland and Slovakia were temporarily reintroduced on October 4 last year.
