Two Cameroonians who illegally entered the country using forged visa approval letters have been fined $10 000 each while a Zimbabwean, accused of generating the letters, was remanded in custody pending trial.
Arnold Gadzikwa will be back at the Harare Magistrates’
Court on June 21. Meanwhile, the pair, Nzingnia Arnaud (42) and Nguimfack
Zebaze Vitrylaine (34), are detained at Chikurubi Female Prison pending
deportation.
In a statement, the Department of Immigration’s
spokesperson Assistant Regional Immigration Officer Memory Mugwagwa said the
two were arrested at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport on May 26.
“Nzingnia Arnaud and Nguimfack Zebaze Vitrylaine arrived in
Zimbabwe aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight on 26 May 2021 whereupon they
presented themselves before the Immigration Department at the airport for entry
clearance. It was during checks on their documentation that it was discovered
that there were anomalies on the visa letters they had tendered for the
process.
“The letters, in terms of the law, are issued by the
Department of Immigration to facilitate entry into the country of those
nationals who are in the Category C of the Zimbabwe visa regime,” reads the
statement.
Verifications made with the Department of Immigration
headquarters confirmed that the letters were not generated from its system.
There was no trace of the letters in the Immigration Department’s database.
Further investigations established that Vitrylaine had submitted an online
application for the visa which was turned down by the department on 12 April
2021 while Arnaud also made an attempt to apply for the visa but never
completed the process.
In a desperate bid to travel, the two then sought the services
of Gadzikwa, who allegedly produced the fake letters. Herald
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