THE Polish embassy in Scotland has received as many enquiries about obtaining citizenship in the past week since Brexit as during the entire previous six months, taking officials there by surprise.
Polish Consul General Dariusz Adler said it had more than 200 enquiries from people about obtaining Polish citizenship, as worried Scots seek to secure their status as EU citizens.
He said many of those interested in citizenship were second or third generation of Poles, and descendants of Polish servicemen who stayed on after being stationed in Scotland during the Second World War.
Adler said: “What is interesting is that during the last three or four days, we have received the same amount of questions about Polish citizenship that we have received from the first six months of this year.
“The questions are coming from the second or third generations of the people who are living here now and have roots from Poland – often this is descendants of the generation of Polish soldiers who stayed in Scotland after the Second World War.”
He added it had taken the embassy by surprise, which was now doing everything it could to help with enquiries – but this was sometimes proving difficult as there was a lack of official records.
“A lot of times people have only information that the grandparents probably came from Poland – but not any evidence, like documents,” he said.
A demand for Italian and Irish passports has also been reported in the UK following Brexit.
The rush for Irish passports was so great at one stage that the Irish Government urged Briton to hold off applying over fears processing systems were under threat of too much pressure.
Last week some eBay sellers were even reported to be offering Irish passport application forms for up to £80, following cases where post offices were said to have run out.
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