Hundreds protest on border against German migrant deportations to Poland

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Hundreds of people have protested on the Polish-German border against deportations of migrants and asylum seekers by Germany to Poland. The organiser of the event warned that “the EU and Germany want to destroy the Polish nation” by using migrants as part of a “hybrid war against Poland”.

The protest received support from Poland’s main national-conservative opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS). The party’s presidential candidate “thanked Polish patriots” for “guarding the border”, which he claimed has been left unprotected by the government.

On Saturday, demonstrators gathered at a bridge connecting the Polish town of Zgorzelec with Görlitz in Germany. Their protest – titled “Stop Germany from flooding Poland with migrants” – followed a similar though smaller one at a border bridge between Słubice and Frankfurt an der Oder two weeks earlier.

Banners were displayed saying “Germany, don’t leave your guests on our doorstep”, “Christian Poland, not Muslim”, and “Stop relocations”, reports news website Interia. Protesters chanted “This is Poland” and “Down with the European Union”.

Organisers claimed that thousands attended the latest protest, though media reports indicate the number was more likely in the hundreds.

Among them was a small group who arrived wearing face coverings and displaying extremist symbols such as the Celtic cross, which is often used by white supremacists, and a banner saying “White Front”.  However, they were criticised by other participants, who accused them of being provocateurs, leading to clashes.

The protests have been organised in response to the fact that Germany each year sends back hundreds of asylum seekers who applied for protection in Poland before moving to Germany while their claim is still being processed. All EU countries have the right to carry out such returns under the so-called Dublin Regulation.

Meanwhile, since Germany reintroduced border controls with Poland in 2023, it has also been turning back thousands of migrants at the border if they do not have the legal right to be in Germany.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has criticised Germany for its border controls and last week suggested that Poland may stop complying with the Dublin Regulation and other agreements with Germany on returning migrants and asylum seekers.

Like the protest two weeks ago, Saturday’s event was organised by Robert Bąkiewicz, a prominent nationalist leader who in 2023 stood as a PiS parliamentary candidate. In the same year, he was convicted for carrying out a “hooligan act” of violence against a female protester.

“Germany is waging a hybrid war against Poland,” said Bąkiewicz, quoted by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. “The EU and Germany want to destroy the Polish state and the Polish nation. Let’s not stand in silence, let’s take up the fight, even if politicians are silent.”

Speaking alongside Bąkiewicz, PiS MP Janusz Kowalski said that “no one here is defending the Polish border”. He called for Poland to introduce controls on the border, as Germany has on its side.

On Sunday, PiS-backed presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki also declared his support for those opposing the “illegal migrants flowing into Poland through the western Polish border”.

“The Polish state is not fulfilling its obligations to protect our western border,” he declared, quoted by Polsat News. “[The border] is not guarded by the Polish state, but is guarded by Polish patriots, whom I thank for being [there].”

In actual fact, the number of asylum seekers returned by Germany to Poland was higher in 2023, when PiS was in office, than in 2024, after Tusk’s coalition had come to power.

Later, Bąkiewicz distanced himself from the more radical elements who appeared at the protest. In a social media post, he said that they “had nothing to do with the organisers” of the event and had appeared as a “provocation”. He claimed police had refused his requests to remove the group.

“It all looked like a setup – perfect for German propaganda and to denigrate Polish patriots,” said Bąkiewicz. He shared an image of the headline of a news report on the protest by German tabloid Bild that said “Polish neo-Nazis protest against refugees from Germany”.

Bąkiewicz demanded that the newspaper “remove false statements” from its report – including calling him an “extremist” – and apologise. If they do not do so within 48 hours, he pledged to take legal action against Bild for “spreading lies and slander”.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Robert Bąkiewicz/X

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.