Prosecutors charge seven people over Polish visa bribery scandal

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda announced on September 14 that he was awaiting the results of an investigation into allegations that Polish consulates sold temporary work visas to migrants for thousands of dollars, just weeks before the strongly anti-migration ruling party seeks re-election for a third term.

TVP World reported, that Poland’s consular sections allegedly issued some 250,000 visas to migrants from Asia and Africa since 2021 in return for bribes.

Asked about the reports, Duda said he could “not disclose the details related to my knowledge about the suspicions of such practices”.

He 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”.

The prosecutor has so far brought charges against seven people, while three of them have been temporarily arrested as a precision measure in connection with the irregularities over visa issuing in Poland.

The deputy foreign minister in charge of consular matters, Piotr Wawrzyk, was unexpectedly fired last month as the first reports of the scandal appeared in the media.

Prosecutors and the state Anti-Corruption Office said on September 14 that seven people — none of them state officials — had been detained on suspicion of corruption in the process of issuing a few hundred temporary work visas. They said the investigation began in July 2022 and was ongoing.

Poland’s main opposition leader and former President of the European Council Donald Tusk, called it “probably the biggest scandal in Poland in the 21st century”.