Some 570 migrants were sent back to Poland from Germany in 2024, according to the official data by the Polish border guard, far from the 40,000 cited in Polish media last week.
Under the readmission agreements and the EU’s Dublin rules, German officials sent the migrants between January and the end of September, compared with 1,922 according to the German government.
Last year, when asylum applications in Germany reached a seven-year high, Berlin made 74,622 requests to other EU member states to take back asylum seekers under the Dublin rules. Of these, 55,728 were accepted.
The Polish Border Guard “systematically cooperates with the German police through joint patrols, joint outposts and the exchange of information via the Polish-German Centre for Border, Police and Customs Cooperation in Świecko,” Andrzej Juźwiak, spokesman for the Polish Border Guard, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Citing German police data, Die Welt previously reported that between October 2023 and the end of August 2024, more than 10,000 unauthorised entries were detected during checks at the border with Poland in Brandenburg, and 5,100 people were turned back at the border.
Asked about the data, Juźwiak said that the Polish Border Guard does not carry out border controls on the internal borders of the Schengen area, including the Polish-German border.
The aim of the Dublin rules is to ensure quick access to asylum procedures and the examination of the merits of an application by a single, clearly designated EU country.
Since the migration pressure on the Polish-Belarusian border has increased, the number of foreigners transferred to Poland has risen. According to Polish officials, most foreigners are sent back from Germany.
Since the German government introduced stationary controls on the border with Poland, the media have reported incidents of German police allegedly taking migrants to Poland and leaving them on the Polish side.
The issue was discussed by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (PO, EPP) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD, S&D).
Meanwhile, Interia, citing sources in the Polish Foreign Ministry, reported on 17 October that Germany could send up to 40,000 migrants back to Poland.
Paweł Wroński, the ministry’s spokesman, told Polsat News that the reports were only speculation about what would happen if Berlin used all the available mechanisms.
Still, “no mechanisms have ever been used to the full,” he said.
German migration strategy is driven by internal affairs?
Last month, Germany introduced border controls with all its neighbours, drawing criticism from Tusk, who called the measure a “de facto suspension of the Schengen zone”.
Berlin has made a clear shift in its migration policy, which was influenced by, among other things, the domestic political situation, “where those who criticise [the German government’s] migration policy are gaining popularity,” Wroński said.
“We also have our own policy and, as you can see, this policy is also firm policy, both on issues of border defence and sometimes in relations with our neighbours,” he stressed.
The Polish government adopted a new migration strategy last week that has divided the ruling coalition, as it includes a temporary and territorial suspension of the processing of asylum applications.
While criticised by human rights NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders, Tusk’s plans were well-received by the European Commission and other EU member states at Thursday’s European Council meeting.