Poland will introduce increased border checks with Lithuania and Germany starting July 7 in response to a growing influx of migrants entering the European Union via Belarus and Latvia, LRT reported. They will be in place until August 5.

Migrants from the Middle East and Africa have been illegally crossing the border since spring 2021, and the authorities say the "hybrid attack" is backed by the Belarusian government and implemented by the security services. Last month, the head of Latvia's Daugavpils Border Guard told ERR News the route is a "criminal business."

The majority of migrants crossing the border have no interest in staying in Latvia or Lithuania and quickly move on to Germany or elsewhere in the EU. Estonia is used as a transit country to the Nordics.

ERR News asked the PPA if the additional checks on the Lithuanian-Polish border would divert the flow northwards and increase pressure on Estonia.

Virko Luide, the agency's head of the crises preparation bureau, said: "At the moment Estonia is not planning on reinstating border control points at the EU internal borders, but in light of Poland's decision we have already added additional patrols in southern and northern Estonia with the task of focusing on potential illegal immigration cases."

He added: "This is a standard procedure we have done before when we have had reason to believe that there is the possibility that increased illegal immigration flows might be passing through Estonia – usually when Belarus has ramped up instrumentalized migration attacks against Latvia, Lithuania and Poland."

Asked if the recent political decision to stop the PPA from using license plate recognition technology would hinder the authorities' efforts to stop smugglers, Luide said "multiple different methods" are used.

"But our main advantage has always been the fact that should someone attempt to move through Estonia to the Nordic countries, they eventually end up in our ports," he said.

Estonia has sent teams of border guards to Latvia this summer and to Lithuania in recent years to assist at the border. But Luide said it is not expected that Poland will ask for the PPA's assistance to help them control people passing through their border control points.

Checks at airport, ports and borders

Postimees newspaper reported that the agency carried out large-scale checks in the border city, Valga, in southern Estonia on Friday (July 4), checking the documents and vehicles of border crossers traveling by car, truck, bus and train.

Photographs from the Southern Prefecture showed officers speaking to drivers and train passengers and looking inside the back of a lorry. A message on Facebook said no violations were detected. The spot checks will continue to take place in border areas, airports, and ports, the PPA said.

"If border-crossing measures are adjusted in any region, then the same must be done here. In the case of the migration attack on Europe from the Belarusian side, we are not dealing with migrants who need help and protection — these individuals may be criminal and dangerous," the Southern Prefecture wrote.

Checks were also carried out at the Port of Tallinn.

"One thing is certain: no illegal migration route must be allowed to form through Estonia, and everyone who enters the country unlawfully will be deported," the Northern Prefecture wrote on Facebook.

A spokesperson for the Gulf of Finland Coast Guard District said approximately 100 people have requested asylum after crossing the Belarusian border into the Schengen area in Finland since 2021.

Article updated to add photographs and information about spot checks in Valga and Tallinn on July 4, 2025.

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