TWO Immigration officers and an ex-officer have been
arrested on allegations of facilitating the illegal stay of two Chinese
nationals in the country. The Chinese were fraudulently issued with visas by
the trio.
Two principal immigration officers, Blessing Chirumarara
and Hopewell Chikosha, who are stationed at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International
Airport were arrested together with an ex-officer Munyaradzi Mushimbo, who was
formerly based at the Gweru offices.
The Department of Immigration is still trying to find out
just how many foreigners were allegedly fraudulently assisted to acquire visas
by the three.
Sources close to the investigations said in one of the
cases, a team of immigration officers led by Principal Immigration Officer
Fadzai Jayne Matarise went to Belgravia to conduct compliance checks and
approached Mr Song Changyu, who produced his passport.
The team then checked the travel history endorsements and
the visitor’s entry certificate that were on his passport. The endorsements in question were dated December 24 last
year.
They became suspicious and engaged their colleagues, who
work at the airport to verify the authenticity of the travel history.
It was discovered that all the visas had been fraudulently
acquired at the airport after the foreigner connived with Chirumarara, who paid
an undisclosed bribe.
Mr Song was arrested and he allegedly confessed during
questioning that he had paid Chirumarara a bribe.
After his arrest, Principal Immigration Officer Godfrey
Kondo was assigned to handle the case and discovered that Mr Song been
unlawfully issued with a visa entry certificate on December 24.
Chirumarara was arrested and taken to the Harare
Magistrates court where she was freed on $500 bail.
Chikosha and Mushimbo were also arrested recently after
they connived to process a visa for another Chinese citizen, Chen Jiahong,
using the same method.
The Department of Immigration has since launched intensive
investigations as they believed that they are more foreigners who are staying
in the country illegally. Herald
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