Poland's Border Guard has conducted over 2.1 million traveller inspections and checked more than 1 million vehicles since reintroducing temporary internal border controls on 7 July 2025.www.visahq.com The statistics, released on 15 March 2026, reveal the scale of checks now occurring at Poland's western border with Germany and its north-eastern frontier with Lithuania—measures officially permitted under the Schengen Borders Code only in exceptional circumstances. Warsaw has justified the controls as necessary to disrupt irregular migration routes entering the Schengen Area via the Baltic corridor and to combat organised smuggling networks.

The five-month enforcement period has produced significant operational results. Along the Polish-German border, the Odra river Border Guard Unit reported 645,000 person checks and over 300,000 vehicle inspections, with 380 foreign nationals denied entry for lacking required travel documents.defence24.com On the Polish-Lithuanian frontier, authorities arrested 51 individuals for organising illegal border crossings and returned nearly 290 persons to Lithuania under readmission procedures, while refusing entry to 578 foreign nationals primarily for documentation deficiencies. Business mobility managers have been advised to budget additional crossing time and ensure travellers carry valid passports or national ID cards.

Poland's Ministry of the Interior is expected to decide in early April whether to request a further six-month extension of the controls, potentially extending the regime into the autumn tourist season. The decision comes as multiple Schengen states—including Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden—have similarly extended internal border checks well into 2026, transforming what were intended as temporary security measures into what critics describe as a semi-permanent fixture of European travel.www.fragomen.com