Schengen visas for cash?
Scholz: Poland cannot simply wave through
September 23, 2023, 5:17 p.m
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Polish consulates are said to have sold tens of thousands of visas to people in Africa and Asia. Chancellor Scholz points out that the events were to the detriment of Germany – and insists that they be clarified.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is calling on the Polish government to clarify allegations that Schengen visas were given out en masse to applicants in Africa and Asia in exchange for monetary payments. “The visa scandal that is taking place in Poland needs to be clarified,” said the SPD politician in Nuremberg. “I don’t want Poland to just wave me through.” Anyone who arrives in Poland must be registered there and also undergo an asylum procedure there. It cannot be the case that “any visas that were distributed in exchange for money” would make the problem in Germany even worse. Otherwise, Germany would have to take further measures on the border with Poland.
Scholz made the comments at his party’s event on the occasion of the state elections in Bavaria in two weeks. He announced further talks with the government in Warsaw. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, his party colleague, has already spoken on the phone to her Polish counterpart Mariusz Kamiński about the Polish visa affair. According to media reports, Polish officials are said to have sold several hundred thousand visas for the Schengen area to applicants from Asia.
In Poland, the process is causing excitement ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled there in mid-October. If the corruption allegations against Foreign Ministry officials are confirmed, this would be a setback for the ruling national-conservative PiS party, which stands for a tough stance on migration policy in the EU. The government in Warsaw rejected the allegations as exaggerated.