While Brussels clings to the dogma of open borders, Poland is asserting its sovereignty.
In July, Poland took a decisive and controversial step by reintroducing border controls with Germany and Lithuania, effectively suspending key provisions of the Schengen Agreement. Backed by 5,000 soldiers, thirteen checkpoints have now been established along the Lithuanian border, and 52 along the German frontier.
The move, launched under the military-led initiative "Operation Safe West," is a direct response to the growing number of illegal migrants entering the country through forest paths, backroads, and, with increasing frequency, under the guidance or protection of foreign state actors.
Germany's Migrant Dumping
Leaked footage shows German police vans driving to forest trails along the Polish border, allegedly offloading migrants every two hours. In one viral clip, a German officer is seen making an obscene gesture toward Polish citizens peacefully monitoring the area, residents who had gathered to stop what they believed were covert migrant handovers into their country.
Polish authorities have gone further, accusing German forces of jamming civilian-operated surveillance drones attempting to document these incidents. These aren’t just diplomatic tensions, they signal a breakdown in trust between two EU member states and expose a growing fracture within the European project itself.
Germany, once praised for its open-door policy during the 2015 migrant crisis, now appears unwilling to shoulder the long-term consequences of that choice. Poland, which opposed migrant quotas from the outset, is being forced to absorb the fallout, socially, politically, and at the border. As Berlin faces rising crime, mass protests, and deepening political instability, it seems increasingly comfortable exporting the burden to countries that never consented to the chaos in the first place.
Citizen Patrols Trigger Response
What makes Poland’s response truly distinct is that it didn’t begin in the halls of government, it started in the fields and forests along the border. In rural communities, ordinary Polish men took matters into their own hands, forming volunteer patrols to monitor footpaths, guard bridge crossings, and track the traces left by illegal entrants. Some stood directly in the way of German police vans suspected of dropping off migrants. Others deployed drones and radios to observe and report movement across no-man's land.
What started as local vigilance quickly grew into a national movement. Farmers drove their tractors to the border in a show of solidarity. Entire villages coordinated night patrols. These were not fringe activists or political extremists. They were mechanics, laborers, and shopkeepers - ordinary people driven by a sense of duty to defend their homeland when the state seemed slow to act.
Their efforts made a difference. Public pressure mounted, and Warsaw responded. The deployment of 5,000 soldiers to the western frontier wasn’t just a security measure, it was a direct response to citizen action. Poland’s border crisis has become a powerful example of civic engagement, serving as a reminder that when people act with courage and conviction, even reluctant governments are compelled to follow.
Rising Violence
The dangers Poland faces are no longer distant possibilities; they are unfolding in real time, with devastating consequences. In the city of Toruń, a 24-year-old woman named Klaudia was brutally raped and stabbed to death by a 19-year-old Venezuelan migrant. Just days later, a Polish man was fatally attacked by a Colombian national.
Meanwhile, the situation at the Belarusian frontier has grown increasingly volatile. Migrants have been recorded throwing stones, swinging weapons embedded with nails, and using electric saws to breach border fences. Polish officials say these incursions are not spontaneous; they are being coordinated and assisted by Belarusian agents, dressed in black uniforms, who help carry ladders, tools, and even escort migrants to weak points in the barrier.
So far in 2025, over 15,000 illegal crossings have been intercepted at the Belarusian border, far exceeding the 917 in Lithuania and 6,000 in Latvia. Attacks on border guards happen almost daily. Stones, sharpened wood, and makeshift weapons are now part of the standard toolkit for those trying to force their way across. In one incident, a 21-year-old Polish soldier, Mateusz Sittek, was killed by a homemade spear thrown over the fence.
These are not peaceful asylum seekers. They are increasingly aggressive actors, often part of coordinated attempts to destabilize and overwhelm. And the numbers are rising.
Poland’s Stand
Poland’s stance could not be clearer: no to open borders, no to forced migrant quotas, and no to serving as the EU’s dumping ground.
As Berlin, Paris, and Brussels remain paralyzed by ideology and political cowardice, Poland is demonstrating something radical in its simplicity: that borders matter. That national sovereignty is not obsolete. And that a country’s future should be determined by its people, not dictated by distant bureaucrats.
The real question now is no longer whether Poland will defend itself; the question is whether it can protect itself. And whether the rest of Europe will find the will to do the same.
Stefan Tompson
Founder | Visegrad24
