The Polish authorities have announced that the country will continue to keep its internal border controls with Slovakia in place.
According to a regulation of the Polish Ministry of Interior published yesterday, the controls at the border with Slovakia have been extended for another 11 days.
This means that the measure will remain in force until December 3 and all those crossing the border will have to undergo checks.
The extension of the measure was signed by the Polish Minister of Interior, Mariusz Kaminski, and it was revealed that the measure has been extended amidst an increase of irregular migrants at these borders.
Poland initially introduced internal border controls with Slovakia on October 4 and since then, the checks have been prolonged continuously.
When the previous extension took place, the Ministry of Interior of Poland said that border crossing would be permitted only at designated checkpoints.
While the Ministry has yet to share information on the points through which people will be able to cross the border, it is believed that similar to the last announcement, border crossing will be possible at nine points.
Moreover, there will also be several pedestrian crossings for EU citizens as well as railroad border crossings through which people will be able to enter Slovakia through Poland or the other way around.
Explaining the reason behind the extension of border controls, the Ministry of Interior said earlier this month that by keeping stricter rules the country aims to prevent irregular migration along the Balkan route.
The aim of reinstating border checks is to curb irregular migration along the Balkan route.
The same stressed that all travellers crossing the Polish-Slovak border must make sure to have their travel document with them – an ID or a passport – at all times.
Poland is not the only Schengen Member State country that is currently keeping internal border controls in place. In addition to Poland, several other countries, including Austria, Germany, Czechia, Slovenia, and Slovakia, among others, implement internal border controls.
Slovakia is one of the countries that just recently updated its border measures. Earlier this week, the Slovak authorities decided to extend border controls with Hungary until December 23.
The Ministry of Interior of Slovakia said that the measure has been extended in response to an increase in migration along the Western Balkan route.
