Amsterdam (Monitoring Desk) The response of the Netherlands to the nexus of VFS Global and Agent Mafia in Pakistan has come to light. The news website ‘ProPakistani’ reported last week about this nexus that hundreds of unknown people sold visa appointments to citizens by presenting themselves as agents of VFS (Visa Facilitation Services) Global on social media. are doing and earning huge profits.
VFS Global is a third party company providing visa, passport and consular services for many non-European and Schengen countries. Countries that VFS Global services for visa etc. include Netherlands. The company has 3,395 application centers in 144 countries of the world, three of which are in Pakistan.
Although online bookings for visa, passport and consular services have been done by VFS Global since the outbreak of coronavirus, the booking slot on its website is not available due to unknown reasons, due to which people Through social media, agents are selling appointments by becoming agents of ProvFS Global on various social media platforms.
Responding to this matter, the spokesperson of the Department of Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Kasper Sutikowo, has said that “the demand for short-term visas from the countries of the Schengen Area has increased greatly after the travel restrictions imposed due to the corona virus have been lifted.” As a result, applicants have to wait for a long time to get an appointment for visa application. The Ministry is working with VFS Global to address this issue. We are also aware of the bad actors in this process who sell appointments ahead of them at exorbitant prices. Work is also being done to counter this problem.
