Prosecutors make arrests amid ruling party digging in over Poland’s alleged visa scandal

WARSAW

Prosecutors charged seven people on Thursday over irregularities in issuing entry visas into Poland, with three of them under temporary detention, authorities said.

Prosecutors and the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) said none of those charged are state officials, adding that investigations began in July 2022 and are ongoing.

The charges are "accepting material benefits for invoking influence in a state institution" and "giving material benefits for intermediation in arranging matters in a state institution," Deputy Director of the Department for Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor's Office Daniel Lerman said. The acts are punishable by up to eight years in prison.

The investigation focuses on the fast-tracking of visa procedures in exchange for payments and concerns several hundred visa applications submitted over the period of 18 months, the majority of which were rejected, Lerman added.

He said visa applications had been submitted to Polish diplomatic missions in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, India, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the Philippines and Qatar.

The Rzeczpospolita daily reported that the system was easy to manipulate by firms that knew how it worked, charging $4,000-5,000 to help applicants "circumvent the system." the daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, claims the case concerns, in particular, VFS Global, a Dubai-based firm.

An unnamed source told the newspaper that the CBA was "forced" to investigate after pressure from other EU countries.

Officers from the CBA carried out a search at the foreign ministry on August 31, Polish media reports. On the same day, Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk was sacked.

- Opposition claims

The alleged irregularities were known in government, opposition MPs claim, ahead of October 15 elections. The issue could be damaging for the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has campaigned on a tough stance on immigration.

"Poland has become the largest center for the transfer of illegal economic immigrants," Dariusz Jonski, an MP from the Civic Coalition (KO) grouping, told reporters.

At a separate press conference, KO spokesperson Jan Grabiec said the irregularities could concern hundreds of thousands of visa applications and that "half the government" was involved.

The main opposition leader, Donald Tusk, called it "probably the biggest scandal in Poland in the 21st century."

"Do you know who in Europe brings in the most Muslim immigrants? The government frightens them. The PiS government," Tusk posted on social media.

- Ruling party is on the defensive

PiS spokesman Rafal Bochenek, in an interview for Radio Zet, spoke about "a pseudo-scandal invented by the Civic Platform (PO) and the media that support it."

President Andrzej Duda said he was waiting for the result of the investigation, adding that "according to my knowledge, at least some of the information in the media is untrue."