Exactly twelve months have passed since Poland reinstated temporary checks on its border with Germany, and the Maritime Branch of the Border Guard has released a detailed anniversary report. Between July 2025 and July 2026 officers on the West Pomeranian stretch alone inspected more than 1.1 million travellers and 520,000 vehicles. They issued 165 decisions refusing entry—mostly to nationals of Ukraine, Syria, India and Russia who lacked visas or who had overstayed elsewhere in Schengen. During the same period 35 suspected organisers or facilitators of irregular migration were arrested, accused of helping 115 migrants—largely from Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan—enter or transit Poland. Courts imposed pre-trial detention in the most serious cases, while others were placed under police supervision or had assets seized. Migrants caught crossing illegally were either readmitted to Lithuania under bilateral procedures or served return orders with multi-year re-entry bans across Schengen. The year-long data give policymakers ammunition as they lobby Brussels to recognise what Warsaw calls a “security spill-over” from the hybrid pressure on the Belarusian frontier. The Interior Ministry argues that without the reinstated controls, many of those refused entry would have headed further west undetected, inflaming the migration debate in Germany and beyond. For export-oriented firms operating out of Szczecin, Gorzów and the wider Odra region, the numbers translate into tangible costs. Freight forwarders report average wait times of 30-45 minutes per lorry during peak periods—marginal in personal-travel terms but material for just-in-time supply chains. Some logistics groups have diverted flows through Czech or Baltic corridors, while manufacturers with German just-in-sequence commitments have added safety stock in local warehouses. Looking ahead, officials hint that once the EU’s Entry/Exit System is fully harmonised at internal frontiers—scheduled for late 2026—manual spot checks may be scaled back. Until then, companies should keep contingency plans in place and monitor daily advisories issued by the Border Guard’s regional headquarters.
Source: 24Kurier
