Maciej Wąsik made the assessment in an interview with public broadcaster Polish Radio on Wednesday morning.
The deputy interior minister said "the situation at the Slovak border had been relatively peaceful” over the past week, with the number of attempts to cross illegally from Slovakia “significantly lower” than before the checks were reinstated.
He added "there have been few incidents" in the past week, the PAP news agency reported.
Wąsik stated: “It seems that the introduction of checks at the border has improved the migration situation.”
The deputy interior minister asserted that “the border checks are working, effectively deflecting migrant arrivals from the Balkans."
Wąsik also said that "the migration problem affects the whole of Europe” and that "the continent awaits a solution.”
He added that Poland was protecting its borders “in the right way” and represented “the strongest link” in the European Union’s passport-free Schengen zone, the PAP news agency reported.
Poland imposes checks on Slovak border
On October 4, Poland reinstated temporary checks on the Slovak border to prevent an influx of illegal migrants, according to officials.
The checks were put in place initially for 10 days, until Friday, October 13.
Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński has said the measure will be prolonged or lifted “depending on the results.”
Since October 4, Poland's border guards have checked 70,200 people and 30,000 vehicles attempting to cross from Slovakia, including over 9,000 people and 4,400 vehicles on Tuesday, the Border Guard agency said on Tuesday.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, dziennik.pl