Poland is joining Austria and the Czech Republic in continuing border controls with its southern neighbor, Slovakia. Despite having originally planned to implement border control with Slovakia until January 2, 2024, the Polish interior ministry issued a statement on February 2 saying, “Due to the continuing threat of illegal migration… the Minister of Interior and Administration extended the temporary reintroduction of border control on the section of the state border with the Slovak Republic for the period from February 2 to March 2, 2024.”

Though use of the Balkan Corridor decreased in 2023, many migrants are still utilizing this path. First arriving in Greece, the usual course has been to go up to Macedonia, through Serbia, to Hungary, and then through Austria, to reach Germany. Germany, which once prided itself on their “Wilkommenskultur” (welcome culture) towards migrants, is now taking a stricter stance towards immigrants, a rising trend in many European countries. As Austria began border control with Hungary in November 2022, more migrants have been heading north from Hungary into Slovakia, and then further north into Poland, which shares its western border with Germany.

Slovakia itself introduced border restrictions with Hungary in October, 2023. Slovakia’s interior ministry said that Slovakia has seen a nine-fold increase in illegal migrants being detained in 2023. Slovak police patrols have been working alongside Hungarian border control in attempts to push migrants back to Serbia, a non-EU country. The UN refugee agency has voiced concerns against Hungarian border control’s treatment towards asylum seekers since 2016, with reports that asylum seekers were subject to violence and abuse.

According to Frontex, the EU’s border agency, migrants coming from Syria, Guinea, and Afghanistan were the most common in 2023. Syria has been experiencing a deadly civil war since 2011, and also suffered an earthquake in 2023 that killed an estimated 55,000 people in its territory and in Turkey, which further destabilized the country. In Guinea, 55% of its 13.4 million residents live in poverty, and many of them are leaving the country due to lack of electricity, water, and opportunities. Afghanistan has been the target of foreign intervention as well as domestic instability, from the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, to a civil war in the 90s, to a post-9/11 U.S. led invasion, to the current Taliban rule. All of these factors in various countries explain the rise in immigration into European countries.

As European countries sour towards immigration and often view migrants as a monolith and drain on resources, it is important to recognize that these people come from complex, unstable situations and undergo a dangerous journey for hopes of a safer life. Amid worsening situations in the Middle East, it can only be predicted that migration into Europe will increase, as people are left with no other option than to flee their home countries.