WARSAW, Poland (AP) —Poland's President Andrzej Duda said Thursday he was awaiting the results of an investigation into allegations that Polish consulates sold temporary work visas to migrants for thousands of dollars, just weeks before the strongly anti-migration ruling party seeks re-election for a third term.
Media reports allege Poland’s consular sections issued some 250,000 visas to migrants from Asia and Africa since 2021 in return for bribes.
Prosecutors and the state Anti-Corruption Office said Thursday that seven people — none of them state officials — had been detained on suspicion of corruption in the process of issuing a few hundred temporary work visas.
According to Onet.pl, a news website, Wawrzyk personally insisted that temporary work visas be issued to groups of people from India, who posed as crews working for the Indian movie industry, popularly known as Bollywood.
The allegations could seriously hit the conservative ruling party ahead of next month's parliamentary elections.
Persons:
—, Andrzej Duda, Duda, “, ”, Piotr Wawrzyk, Donald Tusk, Poland's, Wawrzyk, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Mateusz Morawiecki, Onet.pl
Organizations:
Media, Prosecutors, Law, Justice
Locations:
WARSAW, Poland, Asia, Africa, India, Belarus, East, Ukraine