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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland’s border guard and prosecutors have dismantled a group operating in a state labour office that they accuse of corruptly facilitating the illegal entry into Poland and the European Schengen Area of over 12,000 immigrants, including from Asian and African countries classified as high risk.
Among the three people detained so far are two “high-ranking officials” who worked at a district labour office in Masovia, Poland’s most populous province and where the capital, Warsaw, is located, said border guard spokeswoman Dagmara Bielec.
The trio have been charged by prosecutors in Grójec, a town in Masovia, with participation in an organised criminal group, organising illegal crossings of the Polish border, abusing their powers and failing to fulfil their obligations.
Their actions were “connected with the procedure for issuing certificates of entry for seasonal work and thus enabling foreigners from high-risk migration countries to illegally cross the border of Poland…and thus acting to the detriment of the public interest”, said Bielec.
As a result of their actions, between 2018 and 2024, almost 12,500 foreigners from Asia, Africa and Ukraine obtained documents necessary to apply for and obtain visas that allowed them to enter Poland and also other countries in Schengen, an area of free movement covering most of Europe.
The officials allegedly provided false information indicating that Polish employers – some of which were entirely fictitious – intended to employ the immigrants.
Investigators say that they uncovered the activities of the group after dismantling a similar gang operating at the same institution last year. That previous investigation led to the detention of ten people, including an employee of the labour office, who are awaiting trial.
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Poland’s current government, which took power in December 2023, has accused the former Law and Justice (PiS) administration of overseeing incompetence and abuses in the visa system that allowed potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants to corruptly obtain access to Poland.
In December, a parliamentary commission investigating the issue called for charges to be brought against 11 people, including former PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and foreign minister Zbigniew Rau.
PiS, which is now Poland’s main opposition party, has dismissed the findings as politically motivated, with one of its MPs arguing that the report does not show “a single visa issued illegally”.
The current government has put in place new measures intended to reduce abuses in the visa system. As a result, the number of visas issued to foreign students last year, for example, declined significantly.
A parliamentary committee investigating alleged corruption in Poland’s visa system under the previous government has adopted a final report.
It will notify prosecutors of suspected crimes by 11 people, including former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki https://t.co/RovQ8hTIF1
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 4, 2024
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Border Guard
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
