• Poland extends temporary border checks with Germany and Lithuania until March 30 next year due to continued use of migration route via Belarus and Baltic States.
• Checks were initially scheduled to run until October 2 but have been extended in response to migrants wishing to travel to Germany from Poland.
• The government in Warsaw introduced the border checks in July 2025 in response to German measures to stop irregular migration, with the possibility of lifting them early if the situation at the border improves.

Poland is extending its temporary border check with Germany once again.

A spokesman for the European Commission in Brussels said on Wednesday that Poland had informed the commission that the checks, which were previously scheduled to run until October 2, are to remain in place until March 30 next year.

Checks at the border with Poland's eastern neighbour, Lithuania, are also being extended.

The Ministry of the Interior in Warsaw announced on Tuesday on X that it was planning the extension. The reason given was that the migration route via Belarus and the Baltic States continues to be actively used.

"Poland does not rule out lifting the checks early if the situation at the border improves," the ministry said.

Poland and the EU accuse Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko of systematically bringing migrants from crisis regions to the EU's external border to exert pressure on the West. Many of these migrants wish to travel on to Germany from Poland.

The government in Warsaw introduced the border checks in July 2025 in response to German measures.

Germany has been carrying out random checks at the border with Poland since October 2023 to stop irregular migration.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt ordered more intensive border checks shortly after the new German government took office in May.

He also instructed border authorities to turn back asylum seekers under certain circumstances.