WARSAW: Poland is tightening its regulations for issuing visas, with no more opaque ways to expedite the issuance of a visa in future, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said in Warsaw on Thursday, reported the German news agency (dpa).
The Poland Business Harbour programme, which mainly targeted self-employed individuals in the IT sector from neighbouring Belarus, has been suspended. The rules for issuing visas on humanitarian grounds are also being revised.
By making the change, the European Union (EU) and NATO country is taking a decisive ation to address the corrupt practices in visa issuance under the former conservative nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) government, which ran the country from 2015 to 2023.
A report by the Supreme Audit Office, published on Thursday, confirmed media reports from last autumn, which stated that Polish consulates during the PiS government in Asia and Africa issued visas in exchange for large sums.
The results of the audit suggested “that there was at least from November 2022 to May 2023 an opaque and corrupt mechanism in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to influence certain Polish consuls to expedite the processing of visa applications,“ the report by the Supreme Audit Office said.
According to the information provided, private intermediary firms were illegally involved in procuring visas. One of these firms is said to have been involved in the facilitation of 4,250 visas between January 2018 and March 2024. It reportedly charged applicants fees of up to €7,000 (US$7,645) for its service, the audit report further stated.
This generous practice of granting entry permits was in stark contrast to the anti-foreign and anti-migration rhetoric of the PiS government.
