Polish MFA refutes Belarusian officials

• 28.05.2012, 15:26

Marcin Bosacki, the Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman, told PAP news agency only 12 Polish consular officers with the right to issue visas worked in Belarus.

So, the real number of Polish consular officers in Belarus differs from the data provided by the Belarusian MFA, Bosacki stressed, naviny.by website reports with a link to Gazeta Wyborcza.

“There are 12 Belarusian consuls in Poland. The number of Polish consuls in Belarus with the right to issue visas is also 12,” he says regarding the information earlier given by the Minsk.

We remind Belarusian MFA spokesman Andrei Savinykh said, “The Polish side has 26 consular officers in Belarus”.

“Minsk, Brest and Hrodna have four consuls each,” Bosacki says. According to him, the difference in the scope of work performed by Polish diplomats from the work done by Belarusian consuls in Poland is that the Belarusian side “issued 70,000 visas, while we gave 300,000 visas last year”.

“Difficulties in issuing (Polish) visas in Belarus occur due to a small number of consuls. We again appeal to Belarus to increase a number of Polish consuls with the right to issue visas in Belarus, especially in view of a large number of visa requests. We could consider up to 100,000 more applications,” he said.