R2 000 per passport: Immigration officer arrested at OR Tambo, found with nine passports faking departure/entry
IOL | 13 March 2023
An immigration official at the OR Tambo International Airport and a police officer, are appearing in court for allegedly stamping passports of people who were not at the airport for departure and re-entry into South Africa.
Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has welcomed the arrest of an immigration official, and his alleged accomplice, a police officer, at the OR Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park.
Motsoaledi’s spokesperson Siya Qoza said the duo were arrested last week after the immigration official had been under observation for a while because of his “suspicious behaviour and suspicious lifestyle”.
“The immigration official had been under observation for some time due to his suspicious behaviour and suspicious lifestyle. The net closed in on him on Wednesday evening when he was caught red-handed, stamping nine passports of nationals from different countries as if those people had departed the country in February 2023 and returned on Wednesday,” Qoza said.
“Initial investigations have established that a runner brought the passports to the airport and handed them over to the policeman, who, using the fact that he was in uniform, went through security into the immigration area.”
An immigration official at the OR Tambo International Airport and a police officer, are appearing in court for allegedly stamping passports of people who were not at the airport for departure and re-entry into South Africa.
The uniformed police officer then linked up with the immigration official, who proceeded to stamp the passports.
An undercover police officer caught and arrested them.
“It is believed that the immigration officer charged R2 000 for each of the passports he stamped. The arrested immigration and police officer are expected to appear at the Kempton Park Magistrate Court on Monday, 13 March 2023,” Qoza said.
The police have launched a manhunt for the runner who brought the passports to the airport, and the owners of the passports.
Motsoaledi said: “We are indebted to the brave and patriotic law enforcement officers for the arrest of each rascal that cheapens the status of our country. I am extremely encouraged by these patriotic acts and I am even more determined to continue the fight against corruption in Home Affairs”.
He said the stamping of passports for departure and re-entry into South Africa has far-reaching consequences.
“The act of stamping passports for departure and re-entry of people who remain in our country is extremely worrying. The owners of these passports can commit crimes in the country and claim that it could not have been them because they were ‘not in the country’ at the time of the commission of the crimes.
“They can use our departure and re-entry stamps on their passports to argue their cases in court. This is simply inexcusable. It makes foreign nationals with bad intentions believe that South Africa is up for the take,” Motsoaledi said.
The minister has issued a stern warning to criminals operating within the OR Tambo International Airport and other ports of entry that “they are being watched every single day and law enforcement will pounce on them at any moment”.
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