On Friday, there was another resignation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in connection with the visa scandal. The announcement stated that the head of the ministry decided to resign from his position and terminate the employment contract with the director of the Legal and Compliance Management Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jakub Osajda. The opposition says it directly about the scandal – it was not only a trade in visas, it was a trade in Polish security.
Politicians in power are trying to suppress the scandal of mass issuance and trade in visas by force. This is what happened when Radosław Sikorski’s conference was disrupted by Deputy Minister of Climate Jacek Ozdoba. However, in the shadow of the political spectacle, further resignations take place. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after Piotr Wawrzyk, is getting rid of Jakub Osajda – director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We can read in the announcement also that Polish consulates will be subject to inspection, and contracts with external companies that provided visa services will remain. Just nine days ago, one such agreement was concluded.
Although PiS has been regularly talking about the pseudo-scandal for several days, the prosecutor’s office announced charges of paid patronage – in simple terms, bribery – for seven people and three people arrested.
The opposition repeats the number of visas issued – about 250,000 in thirty months. These are ministry data, we hear. – They have launched a mass process of issuing hundreds of thousands of visas to citizens of Asia and Africa – says Jan Grabiec from PO. – This is security trade, this is not visa trade, they traded Polish security and traded Polish security – adds Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, head of PSL.
This number in itself is very inconvenient for PiS, because before the elections PiS threatens with immigration and proposes a referendum. Hence, politicians in power are trying to hide or camouflage this number. – The case concerns several hundred visa applications – assures Rafał Bochenek, PiS spokesman.
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Peace of those in power?
The figure of 250,000 applies to all visas issued to immigrants from Asia and Africa over a thirty-month period. It is huge, but no one denies it directly.
However, several hundred visas are only related to the prosecutor’s investigation. Why only a few hundred? Because that’s what the prosecutor’s office, headed by a politician from the ruling camp, decided.
Power politicians – although these two numbers refer to different things – constantly mix them up. – Turning 200 visas into 250,000 is a fiction – says Maciej Wąsik, Deputy Minister of Interior and Administration.
Jakub Osajda, who was fired from the ministry – a co-worker of Piotr Wawrzyk – was once a PiS candidate for the Sejm from the Kielce list, together with Zbigniew Ziobro, who says about the whole case that “dishonest people can be found anywhere.”
Another collaborator of Piotr Wawrzyk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was Edgar K., who was allegedly involved in smuggling of people from India posing as a Bollywood film crew at a cost of up to forty thousand dollars per person.
Edgar K. was in the past an advisor to Anna Zalewska – former Minister of Education. Now, as reported by “Gazeta Wyborcza”, he has cooperated in the investigation and has recordings of conversations with PiS politicians. Piotr Wawrzyk – according to media reports – was taken to hospital, and the authorities continue to threaten immigrants.
Main photo source: TVN24