Polish tourists continue to have entry problems at immigration control

Thousands of Polish tourists have been turned back home from the borders of the United Kingdom, United States and Israel over last few months, reports Rzeczpospolita. The paper estimates that some 10,000 out of 78,500 of Poles visiting the U.K. since the beginning of the year were refused entry. U.S. immigration control data shows that only 354 Poles were officially refused entry this year, but this figure is unreliable as most decided to return home voluntarily to increase their chance to receive another visa. Several cases of unfair treatment have been reported against Polish tourists at Tel Aviv airport. "The lady from the Israeli immigration service was very arrogant, as if she had previously decided to turn me back," complained a student from Gliwice. Foreign Ministry spokesman Boguslaw Majewski said he has not recorded any increase in the number of official complaints and suggested that the problem may be simply connected to increased numbers of Polish tourists and not any intentional action. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A1, A3) M.K.