Pakistan - Polish TV presenter expelled for violating visa rules

Pakistan expelled popular Polish presenter, traveller and writer Martyna Wojciechowska on Thursday for violating visa rules, reported Radio Poland.

Martyna Wojciechowska claimed that she was detained by Pakistani military intelligence while filming a TV series in that country.

Poland’s foreign ministry said that Wojciechowska’s crew did not comply with instructions from the Pakistan authorities. It added that Wojciechowska, the former editor-in-chief of National Geographic Poland magazine, on Thursday left Pakistan with her crew on a flight to Poland.

Wojciechowska said in a post on Facebook: “In the north-western part of Pakistan, close to the border with Afghanistan, where we were filming another episode of the ‘Woman at the Edge of World’ program, we were detained by the Inter-Services Intelligence.”

She added: “Our equipment was forcibly confiscated and we were prevented from working. We spent the next days under house arrest under constant police and military supervision.”

She said that after almost 24 hours travelling through the mountains under escort, she arrived in Islamabad with her colleagues.

The Polish foreign ministry said that according to the authorities in Pakistan the “television journalists made recordings in restricted areas without the appropriate visas (they used tourist visas), the required journalistic accreditation and administrative permits for access to restricted areas."

It added: "The team did not comply with the instructions of the local authorities.”