In a highly damaging report targeted at the former conservative Law and Justice government (PIS), the current ruling Tusk government revealed that PiS issued 366,000 visas to foreign nationals from Asian and African countries. The visa scandal is seen as one of the contributing factors that cost PiS power during national elections, and the Tusk government has now submitted criminal referrals for prosecution.
The chairman of the investigative committee on Poland’s visa scandal, the Civic Coalition’s Marek Sowa, presented a report on the activities of the body in the Sejm, and according to Do Rzeczy, accusations were made against PiS.
“The actions of the PiS government contributed to the uncontrolled influx of migrants with Polish visas. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a corruption-prone system that allowed visas to be obtained bypassing the applicable procedures. PiS politicians had knowledge of this procedure, its scale and directions of migration, yet they did not take action to prevent this situation,” Sowa told members of the Sejm.
A former Polish deputy foreign minister has been arrested on charges of speeding up visa applications in return for illicit payments, the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) reported on Wednesday.https://t.co/TSXV24bSzX
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 18, 2024The committee adopted the final report on its work at the beginning of December and decided to submit 11 notifications to the prosecutor’s office about the possibility of a crime being committed. His announcement on social media named names, including former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
“Today we are sending notifications to the National Prosecutor’s Office concerning 11 people. Among them: Zbigniew Rau, Mateusz Morawiecki, Mariusz Kamiński, Jadwiga Emilewicz, Andrzej Stróżny and Lech Kołakowski. The law must be equal for everyone!” Marek Sowa posted on X earlier this month.
The committee chair then presented a report on the committee’s activities during Wednesday’s parliamentary debate.
Polish minister attempts suicide after police raid foreign ministry over visa bribery scandal.https://t.co/ObTSN2svK2
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 19, 2023According to his report, in the years 2019-2023, Poland issued 2,000,872 national work visas, which constitutes 47.7 percent of all such visas in the European Union. Almost half of the visas were issued by Polish consular posts. A significant number of the 2 million visas allowed for a massive increase in African and Asian immigrants into Poland
“Legislative changes were supposed to lead to the creation of a visa factory. This visa-granting system has been gradually dismantled,” said Sowa.
In the parliamentarian’s speech, two names were mentioned. However, according to Sowa, they are not the key to the whole matter.
After mentioning “the Wawrzyk letters” and “the Kobos affair,” Sowa noted these are just the tip of the iceberg, stating, “There are many more corruption-prone activities that are well documented and described in the commission’s report.”
“Poland was perceived as a country with the most open and liberal visa policy in the Schengen Area, which had a negative impact on Poland’s international image,” the KO politician added.
