A person was detained by Immigration and Emigration Department officers at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) while attempting to depart Sri Lanka using a forged Polish visa. According to reports, the suspect spent €7,000 to have a fictitious Polish visa added to his passport from Sri Lanka. According to reports, the incident happened on April 8, 2024, in the evening. The suspect, a Jaffna native, was allegedly trying to board Sri Lankan Airlines flight UL 217, which was scheduled to arrive in Doha, Qatar, according to the Daily Mirror newspaper. He was also suspected of having plans to go first to Doha and then take a further flight to Warsaw, Poland. According to a senior Immigration official cited by the newspaper, the passenger admitted to having paid €7,000 to a local agent to facilitate a transfer to another individual in Germany to obtain a forged visa. As further explained, the suspect obtained his passport with the fake Poland visa from a local agent. The person in question was then transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Unit at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) for further investigations.

Poland Cracked Down on Network Issuing 10,000 Forged Work Visas

In March 2023, authorities at the Border Guard Post in Bydgoszcz, Poland, dismantled a criminal organisation allegedly responsible for issuing over 10,000 fake work visas to foreign individuals. More specifically, Border Guard officials uncovered a scheme where mainly Ukrainian citizens acquired Polish work visas through fake documents under fictitious business. Following the operation, five suspects were temporarily arrested by the police. As further noted, anyone involved in the case can be sentenced to a maximum of eight years in prison.

EU Commission Investigating 2 Polish Consulates Over Work Visa Scandal

In addition to the above-mentioned cases, Poland has faced other challenges regarding work visas in recent months. In March 2023, the European Commission announced plans to investigate the Schengen visa issuance process at two Polish consulates in China and the Philippines. Such a measure was prompted by the “visa scandal” in Poland, which began in September 2022. Moreover, in January 2023, Polish authorities arrested Piotr Wawrzyk, Poland’s former deputy foreign minister, following the cash-for-visas scandal. As revealed by Poland’s anti-corruption agency, the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), Wawrzyk was detained over allegations of accelerating work visa processing in exchange for money. Along with the former minister Wawrzyk, eight other people also faced charges.