Scandal in Poland: this is the plot of diplomats who sold visas and passed migrants off as Bollywood actors

Poland is one of the countries in the European Union that is most opposed to the immigration policies of the 27. It is precisely there where a plot to grant illegal visas has been discovered. Several diplomats and even members of the government are allegedly involved.

It was two neighboring countries that raised the alarm. The border protection services of Germany and Sweden warned about a strange increase in Polish visas.

For this reason, since July 2022, the Polish Prosecutor's Office has been investigating a scheme to grant temporary (and illegal) work visas to Asian and African migrants.. Polish media claim that the country's consular sections have issued thousands of visas to immigrants from Asia and Africa since 2021.

From 1,000 to 6,000 euros

They did it in exchange for bribes.. From what is known until now, the diplomats involved charged immigrants between 1,000 and 6,000 euros per visa.. With this document they could move freely not only through Polish territory but throughout the EU.. Polish media speak of around 350,000 illegal visas in the last 30 months, but it could reach almost 600,000.

The Polish embassies in Egypt, India, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Tajikistan would be involved in the plot, according to the newspaper Rzeczpospolita.. In these, priority was given to those who paid the bribe and it was done in collusion with local subcontracted companies.

Last week, prosecutors and the State Anti-Corruption Office clarified that seven people had been arrested (none of them state officials) for their alleged involvement in the plot.. In August, when the first information about the scandal appeared, the Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of consular affairs, Piotr Wawrzyk, was fired.

Suicide attempt by the highest person involved

According to reports, Wawrzyk personally insisted that temporary work visas be issued to groups of people from India, who posed as teams working for Bollywood, the Indian film industry.. When his involvement became known, Wawrzyk attempted suicide, as reported by the Polish Minister of Justice.

The plot seems to have its origin in one of the measures adopted in Poland in 2020 in the face of the pandemic. According to journalist Piotr Leski, an “addition” was suddenly added to the Law on Special Provisions for the Prevention and Control of Epidemics of Covid-19 and other Communicable Diseases that allowed the Foreign Minister to grant visas.. The entire bill was processed as a matter of urgency.

En este marco se basó el decreto de Exteriores de junio de 2023, señala Gazeta Wyborcza. According to it, the entry into Poland of some 400,000 temporary workers from Asian countries should be simplified.. When the ordinance became known, a scandal broke out, although Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Law and Justice, the ruling party, called everything an “administrative error.”. The document was withdrawn.

And on October 15, elections

Poland's President Andrzej Duda says he is awaiting the results of an investigation (audit) into the allegations. Last Thursday, Duda dared to say that as he understood it, “at least part of the information that appeared in the media was false.”. And he said it just a few weeks before Law and Justice seeks re-election for a third term in the imminent elections.

“Some of the information that appears in the media is false,” says the prime minister.

Law and Justice has placed opposition to immigration at the center of its policies. Opinion polls for the October 15 elections suggest he will win, but not with an absolute majority.

The biggest Polish scandal of the 21st century

In the middle of the pre-campaign, the opposition denounces the hypocrisy of a Government that boasts of its toughness against illegal immigration and that profits by bribing very vulnerable foreigners. The main leader of the opposition today is Donald Tusk, who was Prime Minister and also president of the EU.. He has called the illegal visa scheme “probably Poland's biggest scandal of the 21st century.”

“We may be witnessing one of the biggest scandals in recent Polish history.”

This is what the president of the Polish National Audit Office, Marian Banas, has said: “Taking into account the information provided by the media, it is possible that we are witnessing one of the biggest scandals in Poland's recent history.”

Immigrants yes, but from Ukraine

The German Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, has asked the Polish government for explanations and the ambassador in Berlin has been called for consultations. Because Warsaw has repeatedly refused to admit the quota of immigrants that the EU distribution imposes on it (those who arrive in thousands, for example, to Lampedusa or the Canary Islands).

Lampedusa is just a kind of symbol of a situation that threatens all of Europe, including Poland,” says Kaczynski

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Polish government opened its border to millions of refugees, offering them accommodation and work. 1.3 million Ukrainians (mostly women and children) are now registered as residents in Poland. But at the same time, he built a huge wall along the border with Belarus, intended to block the entry of immigrants from the Middle East and Africa.

This same Tuesday, at a press conference, Kaczynski said that the EU must confront the increase in migrants by closing its borders and rejecting any idea of relocating them within the bloc.. Law and Justice's top leader said Poland risks being overwhelmed by migrants like the Italian island of Lampedusa if they do not return to power in the October 15 elections.. “Lampedusa is just a kind of symbol of a situation that threatens all of Europe, including Poland,” he said.