A dozen people have been indicted regarding the issuing of more than 1,000 false documents from three private universities to enable migrants to enter the European Union.
The Polish Border Guard Authority on October 8 revealed that it had broken up a gang of 12 Poles and Ukrainians allegedly responsible for issuing the fake documents to people from Africa, Asia, eastern Europe and Latin America following an investigation started in 2022.
They are charged with allegedly participating in an organised criminal group, facilitating illegal residence in Poland, forging documents and laundering large sums of money in collusion with unknown others.
The three universities in question are also accused of issuing documents for which they charged between €120 and €1,400, including certificates of acceptance for foreigners, despite lacking the necessary accreditation from the Polish interior ministry.
The ringleader of the accused is reported to have been a deputy rector of the University of International and Regional Co-operation (WSWMiR) in the town of Wołomin near Warsaw.
The offences carry prison sentences of up to eight years for the first three charges and up to 10 years for money laundering.
The documents were allegedly purchased by, Russians, Belarusians, Turks, Indians, Kazakhs, Tajikistanis, Uzbekistanis, Kyrgyzstanis, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, Chinese, Nigerians, Somalians, Ghanaians, Tunisians, Syrians, Lebanese, Algerians, Colombians and Guatemalians.
Prosecutors also said the papers were used by some Ukrainians during the Covid pandemic to enter Poland despite travel restrictions and later, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, by men of conscription age to flee the country.
Others reportedly used fake certificates to seek residence permits or even citizenship.
“In some cases, foreigners did indeed obtain Polish citizenship using such certificates,” said the prosecution service on October 10. It is reviewing citizenship and residence decisions granted on the basis of the falsified documents.
The number of foreign students in Poland has surged in recent years. Some 100,000 of them accounted for 9 per cent of all enrolments in 2023.
Officials have claimed that some foreigners have used student status as a route to work or migrate within the EU.
As part of a tougher new migration strategy, the government has introduced stricter regulations for foreign students, resulting in a drop in the numbers of study visas issued.
Under the new rules, universities must verify applicants’ credentials and language skills and the National Agency for Academic Exchange must confirm school qualifications.
Foreign students can now make up no more than half of a university’s enrolment and consulates must be notified if a student fails to start their studies.
Poland’s centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which came to power in December 2023, has accused its predecessor Conservative government of failing to tackle corruption in the immigration system which it claimed allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants into Poland without proper vetting.
An investigation carried out in 2023 revealed that only around 600 visas had been fraudulently issued as a result of activities of an official and a company connected to him. Reports of hundreds of thousands of illegally obtained visas have not as yet been verified.
