Immigrant officer nabbed for allegedly helping undocumented foreign nationals at OR Tambo

An immigration officer at OR Tambo International Airport has reportedly been arrested for allegedly facilitating the entrance of Bangladeshi illegal foreign nationals without legal documents.

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told eNCA the syndicate involves a runner who recruits Bangladeshi nationals who do not qualify to visit South Africa and also members of the airline to help them enter the country illegally. The operation is coordinated by a kingpin, who charges foreign nationals R110,000.

An airline employee then smuggles the foreign nationals by either providing false names of the passengers or excluding them from the list of travellers, Motsoaledi told the channel.

In a separate incident last month, a multi-disciplinary operation involving the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation, cash-in-transit task team, Department of Home Affairs’ Anti-Corruption, and Johannesburg Central Tactical Response Team, resulted in the arrest of 29 suspects for alleged fraud, corruption, contravention of the Immigration Act and possession of suspected fraudulent documents.

The suspects were arrested at the Home Affairs office in Krugersdorp, following intelligence received regarding the fraudulent passport allegations countrywide.

According to Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, the arrested kingpin and his syndicate had been operating in South Africa’s six provinces, excluding the Northern Cape, Free State and North West.

The scam is allegedly mostly done by Pakistani and Somali citizens, said Motsoaledi.

How South Africans were involved

“What they do is, they recruit foreign nationals who need South African passports but don’t deserve them because they’re here illegally. Then they recruit a corrupt Home Affairs official. At night, the Home Affairs official opens the offices. They bring an equal number of South Africans and foreign nationals. Each South African will donate their identify to the corresponding foreign national,” explained Motsoaledi in an interview with Newzroom Afrika.

“The South Africans who are recruited don’t have passports, so they apply for passports and provide their personal details and fingerprints. But when it’s time to take a photo, the South African moves aside and the foreign national moves in and takes a photo. All the details belong to a South African, but the photo belongs to a foreign national, who then applies for a passport and goes all over the world as a South African.”

Motsoaledi said the South African who donates their ID is paid R500, while the corrupt Home Affairs official gets R5,000 per passport. The Kingpin gets R40,000.

READ MORE: How South Africans sell their identities to foreigners for just R500