Poland’s border authorities declared last week that they "remain vigilant and effective in protecting Poland’s borders." Their declaration comes after they reported stopping 54 migrants, including 30 nationals from Pakistan, 15 from Afghanistan and nine from Bangladesh, from crossing the border between neighboring Lithuania and Poland.

The migrants were discovered on July 3 in a truck driven by a 37-year-old Romanian citizen with Romanian registration plates after officers inspected the truck, stated a press release from the Polish Border Guard. Officers said they believed the migrants had been transported from Latvia, through Lithuania and on to Poland.

Criminal proceedings have been initiated against the Romanian citizen.

Border controls continue

Border controls were introduced between Lithuania and Poland last summer, amid ongoing tensions along the EU’s eastern frontier, reported the Polish state media TV channel TVP.

According to a press release on the Border Guard website, dated July 3, there were also other attempted crossings at that border on the previous day (July 2). Initially, stated the press release, Border Guard officers discovered two Sudanese citizens in the municipalities of Punsk. They said that a residence permit check uncovered the fact that the two migrants "lacked documents authorizing entry and residence in Poland."

The Border Guards said the two Sudanese nationals had crossed the border from Lithuania into Poland at "an undesignated crossing point."

Later that day, in the same area, border guards detained two Afghan citizens, who were also found to have crossed the border without the correct documents and didn't possess residence permits.

At another location in Sejny, officers detained two more foreigners, a Sudanese person and an Ethiopian. The two men, stated the press release, had "crossed the so-called green border from Lithuania to Poland at a prohibited location and did not possess documents authorizing their stay in Poland."

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'Simplified readmission procedure'

All of the six were also handed back to Lithuania "under a simplified readmission procedure."

According to a Polish border guard post on X on July 3, border guard personnel carried out nearly 4,500 checks on people and nearly 3,000 vehicles were checked. Six people were detained and handed over to Lithuania under readmission procedures.

Similar controls were also in operation at Poland’s border with Germany, where officers said on July 2, they checked nearly 3,500 people, nearly 1,700 vehicles and denied entry to nine people.

Interestingly, although many of those coming from Lithuania are thought to have crossed into the EU originally from Belarus, the Polish border guard confirmed that no attempts were detected to cross the border from Belarus into Poland on July 2.

Poland and other EU nations accuse Belarus of operating "hybrid warfare" against the EU bloc, by facilitating the travel of migrants unauthorized to enter the EU via Belarus and then across the border into Poland and the Baltic states. This began in spring and summer 2021, when tens of thousands crossed the forest borders from Belarus into Poland and the Baltics. Subsequently, Poland and the other states have built walls, fences and introduced tight security along the border, including patrols, cameras and drones, but some migrants continue to make it across these blocks.

Since the beginning of 2026 to the end of June, the Polish authorities said they had checked over 2,600 foreigners and had found 129 cases where people had "violated the regulations"

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