A Polish state audit office (NIK) report, leaked to the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza, has alleged mass irregularities in the granting of 366,000 visas to Asians, Africans and Russians by the previous Conservative (PiS) government.
NIK claimed in the report seen on September 24 that “the actions taken by the foreign ministry in the area of supervision over the visa component of consular activities were unlawful, inappropriate and unreliable, and resulted in the mismanagement of public funds”. It added this “caused a significant and unprecedented threat to the interests of Poland and the security of citizens”.
The audit office stated that between 2018 and 2022, Poland issued around 6.5 million visas including some 366,000 for what it described as people from “Muslim and African states” – countries which PiS had always argued posed a risk in terms of security and their nationals’ limited ability to integrate.
The auditors also found that visas continued to be granted to Russians even after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, under the Poland Business Harbour system launched by PiS and designed to attract highly qualified professionals to the IT sector.
The investigation was prompted by allegations made in 2023 that there had been corruption in the issuing of visas. Piotr Wawrzyk, the deputy foreign minister responsible for managing the consular service involved, was sacked and has since been charged, as have other individuals from companies involved in filing visas.
NIK allegedly found evidence that Wawrzyk had forwarded to consuls “lists with the names of people for whom third parties expected acceleration of visa procedures”.
The head of NIK Marian Banaś was once a minister in the PiS government but shortly after his election to head the audit service he fell out with his party over revelations about the propriety of his and his son’s actions and has since become a severe critic of that administration.
The current Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk seized on the report, saying it “confirmed our worst suspicions” about the process of issuing visas for foreign workers,
“While Polish soldiers and border guards were risking their health and lives to protect us from the wave of illegal migration organised by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Belarus President Alexander] Lukashenko, the PiS government let in 366,000 people from Asia and Africa, including for bribes,” tweeted Tusk.
Kiedy polscy żołnierze i strażnicy graniczni narażali zdrowie i życie, chroniąc nas przed zorganizowaną przez Putina i Łukaszenkę falą nielegalnej migracji, rząd PiS wpuścił, także za łapówki, 366 tysięcy ludzi z Azji i Afryki. Raport NIK potwierdził nasze najgorsze podejrzenia.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) September 23, 2024
Polish President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, took a different view, pointing out that the visas were issued to help Poland’s labour market.
He told the Polish Press Agency (PAP): “According to NIK, most of these visas were issued to meet the expectations of Polish businesses as a result of a shortage of labour due to the lack of necessary workers.”
But he conceded that there was a need for further investigation.
“Therefore, there is a fundamental question to what extent these visas were implemented properly … and to what extent it contributed to negative, pathological phenomena, such as effective illegal migration,” said Duda.
Migration was a key issue in last year’s general elections with PiS accused of being inconsistent on the issue because its hardline rhetoric about controlling migration and protecting the border with Belarus from illegal migration contrasted with its willingness to let in migrants through what its opponents on both Left and Right called “the back door”.
In the past seven years, Poland has issued more residence permits for migrants from outside the European Union than any other member state. Last year alone it issued 643,000 such permits, more than both Germany (586,000) and Spain (549,000), respectively.
The Hungarian Government has dismissed criticism from the European People’s Party of Budapest’s new visa policy for Russian and Belarusian citizens as “childish lies”. https://t.co/y1rnf5xqsk
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 1, 2024
