Poland’s government has written to European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson, claiming that the visa-buying scandal is a media exaggeration aimed at discrediting nationalists in the government, Reuters reported on Friday. , quoted by Agerpres.

The letter, signed by Poland’s deputy foreign minister, became public after Johansson called on Poland to respond to allegations that 350,000 migrants bought visas to the European Union’s Schengen zone at Polish consulates through intermediaries. A representative of the European executive stated that there are suspicions about Poland’s violation of EU legislation, especially the Visa Code.

The scandal broke out in the context of the fact that the ruling Law and Justice party in Poland is trying to win a third mandate in the government in the parliamentary elections on October 15, betting, in particular, on the position against migration.

The head of the foreign ministry’s legal service in Warsaw was fired last week and the agency canceled all visa outsourcing contracts after seven suspects were charged with irregularities in the issuance of work visas.

On August 13, the Anti-Corruption Bureau conducted a search in the ministry, and the deputy minister was fired.

Over the past three years, almost two million Polish work visas have been issued

In a letter to Johansson, Deputy Minister Pawel Jablonski claims the ministry has known about the problem since July 2022 and has since launched an investigation. He rejected media claims that hundreds of thousands of migrants had obtained Polish work visas at higher prices and entered Poland without security checks.

Prosecutors investigated only 268 such cases, Jablonski said, adding that all migrants applying for visas through subcontracting companies were thoroughly vetted by security services.

After the scandal, Germany increased the number of border police by hundreds of agents and summoned the Polish ambassador to Berlin for clarification.

Data from the European statistical office Eurostat, cited by the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, show that over the past three years, Poland has issued almost two million visas with the right to work, including 600,000 in 2020 alone, more than a quarter of the total number of visas. that year of the entire European Union.