German police have been accused of violating protocol after crossing the border to shepherd illegal migrants back into Poland.
The incident occurred last Friday when a German police car crossed into the Polish border town of Osinów Dolny before leaving a family of five migrants behind.
“This is a violation of the procedures that are in force in such situations,” said Jacek Dobrzyński. However, he stressed that this appeared to be an isolated case.
“We can say that this has been the first such incident so far, and, fortunately, the only one,” he added.
The incident is set to be discussed during the Polish interior minister’s visit to Berlin on Friday. Additionally, General Robert Bagan, the commander of the Polish Border Guard, will meet with his German counterpart tomorrow in relation to the incident.
Now, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has also weighed in and promised to take action: “I will soon talk to Chancellor Scholz about an unacceptable incident involving the German police and a migrant family on our side of the border. The matter must be explained in detail,” wrote Tusk on X.
The deputy head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Czesław Mroczek, told PAP on Monday that the German police had acted without Polish consent, saying: “We can assume that this was the initiative of the German officers themselves."
Bianca Jurgo from the press office of the German police, said that the family already had legal papers for Poland and the police had taken them back to Poland to simply avoid bureaucracy. “They had Polish refugee status certificates for adults and Polish identity cards for children with them,” she said. “These people were taken to the police station for further proceedings. The Afghan family did not ask the police officers for asylum,” she said.
Seeking to avoid detaining the family for “an excessively long time”, the officers acted after the Polish side failed to respond, she added.
In the first five months of this year, Germany apprehended 7,371 foreigners trying to illegally cross the border from Poland to Germany.
Of this number, 3,578 were returned to Poland, among them 2,238 Ukrainian nationals.
“This is a violation of the procedures that are in force in such situations,” said Jacek Dobrzyński. However, he stressed that this appeared to be an isolated case.
“We can say that this has been the first such incident so far, and, fortunately, the only one,” he added.
The incident is set to be discussed during the Polish interior minister’s visit to Berlin on Friday. Additionally, General Robert Bagan, the commander of the Polish Border Guard, will meet with his German counterpart tomorrow in relation to the incident.
Now, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has also weighed in and promised to take action: “I will soon talk to Chancellor Scholz about an unacceptable incident involving the German police and a migrant family on our side of the border. The matter must be explained in detail,” wrote Tusk on X.
The deputy head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Czesław Mroczek, told PAP on Monday that the German police had acted without Polish consent, saying: “We can assume that this was the initiative of the German officers themselves."
Bianca Jurgo from the press office of the German police, said that the family already had legal papers for Poland and the police had taken them back to Poland to simply avoid bureaucracy. “They had Polish refugee status certificates for adults and Polish identity cards for children with them,” she said. “These people were taken to the police station for further proceedings. The Afghan family did not ask the police officers for asylum,” she said.
Seeking to avoid detaining the family for “an excessively long time”, the officers acted after the Polish side failed to respond, she added.
In the first five months of this year, Germany apprehended 7,371 foreigners trying to illegally cross the border from Poland to Germany.
Of this number, 3,578 were returned to Poland, among them 2,238 Ukrainian nationals.
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