Dariusz Pawłoś was summoned to the German interior ministry on Tuesday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Separately, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser spoke to her Polish counterpart Mariusz Kamiński, according to officials.
Germany is seeking urgent clarification about the “cash-for-visas” affair, which has emerged in Poland recently, the Reuters news agency reported.
It involves allegations that migrants were granted visas in a fast-track procedure without proper checks in exchange for payments to intermediaries.
Faeser voiced concern that illegally issued visas could have enabled migrants to enter Germany, the IAR news agency reported.
The Polish ambassador spoke with Germany’s Deputy Interior Minister Bernd Krösser and presented data on visa issuance, an embassy official told Polish Radio.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government is seeking a "quick and complete clarification of the serious allegations of possible visa fraud," an official in Berlin told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Germany has already publicly expressed its concern about the issue and deployed hundreds of additional border police to the German-Polish border, according to Reuters.
Poland’s Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said the summoning of the Polish ambassador by Germany had been the result of “false media reports” about the visa issue.
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk commented: "It's about clarifying the accusations that some Polish and German media are making against Poland - in a completely unjustified way - in the context of the migration crisis. The ambassador explained that these are unjustified accusations. I think he reassured our German partners and I think this meeting had that purpose.”
On Friday, Poland’s top diplomat Zbigniew Rau ordered an audit of the foreign ministry’s consular department and all of the country’s consulates abroad, fired the head of the ministry's legal service, and cancelled all contracts for the outsourcing of visa applications, over suspected irregularities in the granting of work visas to foreigners.
The move came a day after Polish prosecutors said they had brought charges against seven people over irregularities in the granting of work visas to the country.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, Reuters