The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement released on Friday it had taken three decision in relation to the ongoing inquiry into irregularities in the visa-granting process. The ministry decided to fire the chief of one of its departments, carry out an extraordinary audit, and cancel contracts with companies that have responsible for accepting visa applications since 2011.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Friday (Sept.15) regarding the visa-granting scandal, in which it informed it had decided to:
- dismiss and terminate the contract with MFA Legal and Compliance Bureau director Jakub Osajda;
- carry out an extraordinary inspection and audit at the MFA Department of Consular Affairs as well as all Polish consular establishments;
- terminate contracts with all outsourcing companies that, since 2011, have been trusted with visa application-related tasks due to the closing down of 31 facilities by the decision of the then MFA chief Radosław Sikorski.
Visa scandal
On August 31, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki dismissed Piotr Wawrzyk as secretary of state at the Ministry of foreign Affairs. The ministry said the reason for PM's decision had been "a lack of satisfactory cooperation," but Polish media reported the visa scandal as the unofficial cause.
According to Onet, Wawrzyk was fired from the government and removed from the ruling PiS party's election lists because he had helped his associates to create an illegal channel used for smuggling migrants from Asia and Africa to America, through Europe.
The National Public Prosecutor's Office and the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) are conducting separate investigations into irregularities in the visa-granting process. Parliamentary opposition accuses the government of corruption and claims that hundred of thousands of documents have raised suspicions.
Deputy director of the Department for Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Public Prosecutor's Office, Daniel Lerman, said at a press conference on Thursday (Sept.14) that the investigation into the visa affair had been launched in March, 2023, based on materials gathered by the CBA. He added that their investigation concerned only several hundred visas.
Deputy coordinator of special services Stanisław Żaryn said that day that none of the visa applicants concerned by the investigation posed a security threat to Poland. He added that Polish special services had been looking into visa-granting irregulaties since July 2022.
Seven people charged so far
He also dismissed media reports that Polish services had only acted after being alerted by other European Union countries that were seeing unusually high number of migrants entering with Polish visas - which under the EU's Schengen open border regime give the holder the right to work throughout the bloc.
"Thanks to the efficient operation of the (security) services, the prosecutor...brought charges against seven people in this proceeding," Lerman said. "Three people are under temporary arrest."
According to investigators, involved in the scandal were Polish diplomatic facilities in: Hong Kong, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Philippines, and Qatar.
According to Wirtualna Polska, Edgar K., a 25-year-old associate of Wawrzyk who is said to have been helping in selling Polish visas to citizens of India, was charged of corruption and arrested for three months. Reportedly, he is no longer in detention.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, tvn24.pl, Reuters