TikTok flooded with ads for Polish visas. “The government’s narrative has fallen apart”
What are the actual dimensions of the visa scandal? PiS politicians talk about several dozen or several hundred cases, opposition politicians talk about tens of thousands. In this context, the recently discovered advertisements on TikTok praising documents from Poland may be very puzzling.
The dismissal of Piotr Wawrzyk from the position of deputy minister of foreign affairs showed that the visa scandal is a serious problem that the government does not hide. On September 7, “Gazeta Wyborcza” wrote that on August 31, officers of the Central Anticorruption Bureau entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. At the same time, on Thursday, September 14, PiS politicians downplayed the problem at a press conference, emphasizing its insignificant size.
What is the scale of the visa scandal?
“Gazeta Wyborcza” emphasized that the regulation created by Piotr Wawrzyk on visa facilitations for temporary workers enabled “the inflow of tens of thousands of immigrants to Europe via international recruitment companies.” This was compared with official numbers, according to which approximately 400,000 people were to come to Poland during this period. employees from countries such as Pakistan, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
How large the scale of this practice could have been is shown by videos published, among others, on TikTok. This application openly advertised Polish visas, showing a well-developed document sales system allowing entry to our country.
The procedure was summarized on Twitter by “Wprost” journalist Marcin Makowski. “Trading Polish work visas like Pokemon cards. The government’s narrative here is completely at odds with reality and there is no one to blame,” he wrote.
Visa scandal at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Last Thursday, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Piotr Wawrzyk was dismissed in unclear circumstances. According to the findings of “Gazeta Wyborcza”, the resignation took place due to the draft regulation, which was intended to facilitate the arrival to Poland of foreign workers. The regulation assumed the possibility of employing up to 400,000 workers in Poland.
The CBA’s findings show that at least 200 out of 600 foreigners applying for a visa to Poland used the services of a Polish intermediary with contacts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, paying him handsomely.
“Gazeta Wyborcza” reported that the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs could have brought hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe, and Prime Minister Morawiecki admitted that the dismissal of Deputy Minister Piotr Wawrzyk is the result of an investigation by the services at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “It is possible that this is a major corruption scandal that resulted in hundreds of thousands of immigrants arriving in Europe,” the daily wrote at the time.
