Donald Tusk confronts Germany over family of migrants abandoned in Poland

Donald Tusk has demanded Germany explain an “unacceptable” incident in which its police reportedly drove a family of migrants across the border and abandoned them on Polish soil.

Local news site Chojna24.pl published a video which it said showed a German police van entering Polish territory on Friday morning and dropping off five migrants in a car park in the Osinów Dolny district.

The police van then immediately drove back to Germany, witnesses quoted by the website said.

The migrants – two adults and three children – were taken into custody by Polish police and border guards, who were alerted by passers-by.

Mr Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said on Monday he would speak to his German counterpart Olaf Scholz “about an unacceptable incident involving German police and a migrant family on our side of the border”, in a message on Twitter.

“The matter must be explained in detail,” he added.

‘Clarify the circumstances’

Earlier on Monday, Poland’s border force said it had contacted its German counterpart “to clarify the circumstances of the incident”.

The German police’s actions were “in violation of the principles of cooperation between the two services and of the law governing the transfer of persons”, it added on Twitter.

“The German authorities cannot take such decisions arbitrarily.”

Czeslaw Mroczek, Poland’s deputy interior minister, said his country would “not tolerate this sort of action”.

“Everything must be done in accordance with the law and procedure,” Mroczek was quoted as saying by the Polish Press Agency.

Police officials from both countries were scheduled to discuss the case on Tuesday.

The incident will also be discussed at a meeting between Tomasz Siemoniak, the Polish interior minister and his German counterpart Nancy Faeser, according to a Polish ministry spokesman.