Groups of Polish football fans have formed self-proclaimed "citizen patrols" and gathered at the border with Germany in a bid to stop migrants being returned to their country. Official data obtained earlier this year by Polish media showed that, between January 2024 and February 2025, Germany returned to Poland over 11,000 migrants who had unlawfully crossed the Polish-German border.

On Saturday, a group of around 200 residents from Szczecin, a Polish city near the German border, blocked the road where migrants were being moved. "We walk to the border post and back. Just so that the German police don't bring us migrants," one participant told local broadcaster Radio Szczecin. "I would like to defend Poland's borders," said another. "It is not our place to do this, but it is a signal to the government."

Groups of football fans from the nearby towns of Police and winoujcie have also carried out similar "citizen patrols" along the German border, displaying banners reading "stop illegal immigration".

Footage shared by fan groups showed at least one confrontation with police officers, who appeared to use pepper spray against some of those gathered.

On Friday, the provincial police headquarters in Szczecin released a statement confirming that one officer had "used a direct coercive measure in the form of pepper spray against a person who did not comply with his orders".

Poland's interior ministry issued a statement urging people to "stop [spreading] fake news" and that Germany was not sending migrants over the border but was simply preventing people without the right to enter the country from doing so.

"The claim that Germany is transferring migrants to Poland is untrue," wrote the ministry. "We are mostly dealing with foreigners who were in Poland (most of them legally) and who then attempt to enter Germany but are denied entry due to border controls."

Nevertheless, opposition politicians accused the Polish government, led by former EU Council President, Donald Tusk, of failing to stand up to Germany.

"Poland's western border is ceasing to exist!" wrote Mariusz Baszczak, a deputy leader of opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) and former defence minister. "Illegal migrants are regularly being transferred to us from Germany, and Tusk's government is pretending that nothing is happening."

"Scenes from border towns are beginning to resemble those from Berlin, Paris or Stockholm - groups of illegal migrants sleeping on benches, in parks, wandering aimlessly," he added.