Polish Foreign Ministry official fired in connection with visa scandal

On September 15, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the dismissal of the head of the ministry's Legal Department and the cancellation of contracts with all companies hired to process visa applications to Poland.

The decision comes amid reports of a “corruption scandal” involving the issuance of visas to hundreds of thousands of people entering Europe via Poland.

Accordingly, Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau decided to conduct a special inspection and audit at the Ministry's consular office and all Polish consular representations, and fired Director of the Legal Department Jakub Osajda.

Mr. Osajda also served as Assistant to Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk, who was fired on August 31 for “lack of adequate cooperation.”

Deputy Minister Wawrzyk is responsible for consular and visa issues, Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, Wawrzyk himself is the author of the draft regulation related to facilitating the issuance of visas to temporary workers from about 20 countries, including Muslim countries.

The paper said the directive assumes "the possibility of employing up to 400,000 workers in Poland."

Previously, on September 14, seven people were charged in connection with irregularities in the issuance of work visas.

Opposition groups accuse the government of being “complicit” in a system that allows migrants to get visas faster without proper checks after paying intermediaries.

The scandal erupted after other European Union (EU) member states warned Warsaw about the unusually high number of immigrants with Polish visas, Polish media reported.

Notably, the scandal comes ahead of Poland's general election on October 15. The ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) has accused the opposition of exaggerating the extent of the problem.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Civic Coalition, former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, assessed this as the biggest scandal in Poland this century.