Lithuanian and Polish border officials are meeting Thursday to discuss ways to make inspections at their shared border more efficient while Poland maintains temporary controls aimed at curbing secondary migration, Lithuania’s interior minister said.
Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas said the two countries should seek to streamline inspections by focusing on higher-risk vehicles and cargo while allowing regular travellers to cross more quickly.
“Trucks and cargo vans can be inspected, but when we see two people traveling for business, holidays or other purposes, or perhaps a single person, the check could probably be faster,” Katelynas told reporters.
The minister said he raised the issue with Polish counterparts during an informal meeting of European Union justice and home affairs ministers in Dublin last week.
According to Katelynas, border officials from both countries were due to meet Thursday to discuss practical measures to reduce queues at the crossing.
Poland reintroduced temporary border controls with Lithuania and Germany in July 2025, saying the measures were needed to stem secondary irregular migration. Warsaw argues that migrants who enter Latvia from Belarus travel through Lithuania before attempting to reach Poland and continue onward to Western Europe.
The number of migrants intercepted after entering Lithuania from Latvia has risen sharply. In the first half of this year, Lithuanian authorities stopped more than 1,200 people arriving from Latvia, compared with just over 300 during the same period last year.
Lithuania has responded by sending teams of border guards to assist Latvian authorities, although it has said it will not provide the full contingent of 100 officers requested by Riga.
Katelynas has also not ruled out the possibility that Lithuania could temporarily restore controls on its border with Latvia if secondary migration continues to increase.
Under European Union rules, countries in the Schengen area may temporarily reintroduce internal border controls only in exceptional circumstances when public policy or internal security is under threat.
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