EU requests "clarifications" from Poland about claims of visa fraud

The European Commission sent a letter to Poland asking for "clarifications" after it was said that Polish officials were involved in a "cash-for-visas" scam.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Polish consulates were accused of a massive illegal conspiracy to provide Polish visas to African and Asian migrants for substantial sums of money.

Poland is a member of the passport-free Schengen area, so its visas allow free entry to the 27 Schengen member states, including 23 EU member states, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein, and some non-Schengen countries.

Brussels is “following the recent media reporting about these alleged cases of fraud and corruption very closely,” said European Commission spokesman Anitta Hipper.

The Polish Foreign Ministry denied importing “hundreds of thousands of migrants from Muslim countries and Africa.”

State news agency PAP reported that Polish prosecutors charged seven people in a visa-issuing scam that led to the deputy foreign minister's sacking.

“The investigation was initiated on March 7 based on information provided by the Central Anticorruption Bureau,” Daniel Lerman, deputy head of the National Prosecutor's Office Department of Organized Crime and Corruption, said a September 14 news conference.

He stated, “It concerns paid protection in the acceleration of visa procedures in relation to several hundred visas,” adding that majority were denied.

PAP reported that Polish diplomatic posts in Hong Kong, Taiwan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India, Singapore, and the Philippines received visa applications from foreigners.

The Polish Foreign Ministry reported 1,951,000 national and Schengen visas in 30 months.

Ukrainians received 990,000 visas, Belarusians 586,000, and others 374,000. Russian citizens have received fewer visas in recent years, according to the ministry.