Cash-for-visas scheme

Poland’s government under fire after reports of cash-for-visas scheme

The ruling party is scrambling to distance itself from the scandal, which could dent its support ahead of next month’s election.

BY WOJCIECH KOŚĆ

Polish opposition parties are hammering the government over reports that the country’s consulates may have issued hundreds of thousands of temporary work visas in return for bribes.

That’s a big potential problem for the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party ahead of the October 15 general election. The party has always pushed an anti-immigrant message — especially for people from Muslim countries — and has touted the construction of a fence along the border with Belarus to prevent illegal migration as one of its signature achievements.

That record is now under attack.

“Do you know who in Europe brings in the most Muslim immigrants? The government that frightens with them. The PiS government,” Donald Tusk, the leader of the opposition Civic Coalition party, posted on social media.

Despite the reports, PiS is still ahead in POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, with 38 percent support compared to 31 percent for the Civic Coalition.

The government is scrambling to react.

On August 31, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki fired Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk, citing “lack of satisfactory cooperation” as the official reason. Wawrzyk was also dropped as an election candidate for PiS.

Polish newspapers Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita and the Radio Zet station alleged that on Wawrzyk’s watch, a “corruption-prone” scheme of granting visas to non-EU citizens flourished, where people paid $5,000 to jump the queue at Polish consulates in developing countries.

The scheme is under investigation by Poland’s anti-corruption police, the CBA. Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the probe came after pressure from other EU countries, alarmed at the number of work visas being issued by Poland.

An anonymous foreign ministry official told Radio Zet that “in one African country, there were stands in front of the Polish embassy where you could buy stamped visas; it was enough to write in a name.”

In 2021, Poland issued nearly 970,000 so-called “first residence permits,” a third of all such permits granted by EU countries to non-EU citizens, according to Eurostat. Poland hasn’t sent updated numbers for 2022 to the EU’s statistical agency.

According to Civic Coalition MPs Marcin Kierwiński and Jan Grabiec, up to 350,000 visas may have been issued in violation of regulations in the last three years.

The visa-holders are supposed to only stay in Poland, but because Poland is part of the open-border Schengen area, they are free to move about the EU. The German states of Brandenburg and Saxony this spring called for the temporary reintroduction of border controls with Poland and the Czech Republic, complaining about the large number of irregular migrants.

The ruling party has gone on the defensive over the issue.

“I’d caution against using the phrase ‘gigantic scandal,’ since we know too little,” Radosław Fogiel, a PiS MP who heads the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, told Rzeczpospolita.

“If it’s true that visas were on sale, it’s a scandal and someone will have to be held responsible for that,” Fogiel told Radio Zet. “But I repeat: if it is true — as so far we’ve been dealing with information in the media only,” he added. 

Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said that even if someone has a visa, that doesn’t mean they will be admitted to the country when they show up at the border.

Other opposition parties are also attacking PiS.

“There must have been a lot of people getting their hands dirty there and the cash was fat on the table so that these scams could be carried out,” said Krzysztof Gawkowski, head of the Left party’s parliamentary caucus.

The Polish People’s Party wants President Andrzej Duda to intervene.

The Polish prosecutor’s office, headed by Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, said in a statement that “information provided by some politicians, including Donald Tusk, regarding irregularities in visa issuance, contains falsehoods and is unrelated to the findings of the investigation.”

As well as issuing large numbers of work visas, Poland has also opened its doors to refugees from neighboring Ukraine. The government says 1.4 million Ukrainians are legally living in Poland.

Poland is facing a demographic crunch, with deaths outnumbering births and an aging population.