During the election campaign, a photo from Nigeria with a crowd of people in a queue to the Polish facility became a sensation – and this is now the most famous illustration of the visa scandal. There is no longer Minister Piotr Wawrzyk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the opposition argues that there should be no Minister Zbigniew Rau either.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki does not comment on the issue of issuing visas to Asian and African citizens, although he personally threatened immigrants, suggesting that they commit crimes and attack women. – This is a great danger. Rapes, robberies, murders. They want to bring you hell, warned the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, on foreign websites, users published detailed instructions on what and how to do to obtain a visa or work permit in Poland. – The PiS government has invited 250,000 immigrants from Asian and African countries to Poland over the last 2.5 years, says Jan Grabiec, an MP from the Civic Platform.
Poland needs people to work, so in general there is nothing wrong with it, if it were not for the fact that PiS did not conduct a campaign full of fear and accusations against these people and if it were not for abuses. – There is and has been a black market for selling visas – says Michał Szczerba, an MP from the Civic Platform.
In one of the photos from a public website in the street view option, you can see the Polish branch in Nigeria and a crowd of people with envelopes or briefcases in their hands. The photos are dated two years ago. What was this queue for? We wanted to ask the embassy about it, but no one answered the phone all day.
Grodzki: the visa scandal will reach the highest levels of the current governmentTVN24
Letters to the Minister of Foreign Affairs
The opposition quotes a letter from the deputy minister of agriculture from the PiS government to the minister of foreign affairs from PiS regarding “taking actions to enable the arrival of foreigners to work on Polish farms”, as well as letters to minister Zbigniew Rau, in which employers complain that the visa system was deliberately blocked so that formalities could only be completed after paying a bribe. References to corruption appeared in the African press two years ago.
– The mafias could make money on this. We hear that up to five thousand dollars for a visa – says Dariusz Joński, MP from the Civic Coalition.
So far, only Minister Piotr Wawrzyk has lost his position, who – as reported by “Gazeta Wyborcza” – was supposed to be a scapegoat. – I think that many people were connected in this business – says Krzysztof Gawkowski, an MP from the Left. – They turned crossing the border of the Republic of Poland, which is supposedly sacred and inviolable to them, into an ordinary trade – comments Szymon Hołownia, leader of Poland 2050.
See the material of “Fakty” TVN: The Polish government is building a barrier on the border with Belarus, but “it is cooperating with the company that brings these immigrants”
PiS politicians avoid the topic or repeat that everything and everyone is checked by the services. There are also denials, complaints against the journalist for asking and turning off the microphone.
What about corruption? – There can be dishonest people in every environment – comments the Minister of Justice and Attorney General Zbigniew Ziobro. Only in the government media do we constantly hear that the authorities are defending us against alleged, dangerous immigration.
Main photo source: Marian Zubrzycki/PAP