German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on the Polish government to investigate reports of hundreds of thousands of illegally-issued work visas and threatened to reintroduce border controls.
(Bloomberg) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on the Polish government to investigate reports of hundreds of thousands of illegally-issued work visas and threatened to reintroduce border controls.
“The visa scandal which is happening in Poland needs an investigation,” Scholz said at a campaign event in Nuremberg on Saturday. “I don’t want Poland just to wave through” migrants.
The Chancellor said he will discuss the issue with the Polish government and raised the possibility of implementing border controls with Poland and other neighboring countries. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said temporary measures could be introduced on the border with Poland and Czech Republic in an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper published earlier on Saturday.
Read More: Poland Downplays Cash-For-Visa Scandal in Diplomatic Snub to EU
Both Scholz and Faeser have previously resisted calls for the introduction of border controls and the comments show the pressure the government is facing to respond to rising numbers of undocumented arrivals.
More than 204,000 refugees requested asylum in the first eight months of the year, a 77% increase on the same period of 2022, according to government data. More than 12,000 illegal migrants were arrested at the Polish border in the first half of this year, according to German police.
The European Union is also looking into the reports that migrants have entered Poland on illegally-issued work visas, for which government officials allegedly received bribes. Poland’s right-wing government has long been a critic of Germany’s liberal immigration policy and has refused to adopt an EU-wide refugee policy.
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