Poland’s Law and Justice party is being rocked by reports that Polish consulates issued visas in Africa and Asia and took bribes, thus allowing migrants to enter the European Union which was used by some as a platform to get a passage to the United States.
The details of the alleged corruption scandal are surfacing a month ahead of the parliamentary elections in the country on October 15, thus troubling the running Law and Justice party which is struggling to control the damage. A former deputy foreign minister who denied the reports of his involvement apparently attempted suicide and was hospitalised on Friday.
Law and Justice has been the election frontrunner among several parties, and it's not clear if the development will dent its support. However, the Opposition parties are attempting to cash in on the issue and accused the government of corruption and hypocrisy, given its strong anti-immigrant stance.
“This is the biggest scandal we have faced in the 21st century. Corruption at the highest levels of government, bringing a direct threat to all of us. And it's because of people whose mouths are full of phrases about security,” Senate Speaker Tomasz Grodzki, an opposition politician, said in a televised address to the nation Friday evening.
Notably, Poland has allowed refugees from Ukraine into the country, who are primarily Christian, but the ruling party officials have long made clear that they consider Muslims and others from various cultures a threat to the country’s identity and security.
According to the media reports, Poland’s consular sections issued nearly 2,50,000 visas to migrants from Asia and Africa since 2021 in exchange for bribes of thousands of dollars.
Poland is a member of the EU's visa-free zone known as Schengen, and once those migrants arrived in Poland they could cross Europe's borders freely.
Szymon Holownia, who leads a center-right opposition party, said the governing party “jeopardized the safety of millions of Poles by conducting the disgusting, commercial practice of selling visas."
The Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it had dismissed an official "in connection with the ongoing findings regarding irregularities in the visa issuance process.” It also announced an audit of its consular department and all consular posts.
The Polish government is also holding a referendum with questions on migration. One question asks voters if they support accepting “thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa” as part of an EU relocation plan.
(With AP inputs)
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