Six Kenyans have been arrested by Zimbabwean security forces on suspicion of illegally entering the country through the country’s porous border with South Africa.
The Kenyans were apprehended on May 27 at around 2am at the Beitbridge Border Post as they entered Zimbabwe from South Africa after it was discovered that they had fake Zimbabwean immigration date stamps.
Musa Abdullahi Hussein (44), Mohamed Abdille (43), Ali Mohamed Abdi (37), Hussein Harun Bullo (34) Muhamed Abdirahman Issack (34) and Ibrahimbashir Durow (34) were on their way to Kenya by road.
They appeared in front of Beitbridge magistrate Annia Chimweta on Monday, charged with violating the country’s Immigration Act.
They were convicted and warned not to commit the same crime again. They are still being held in detention pending deportation.
Prosecutor Esnath Vengedza told the court that when the Kenyans arrived at the border, they hired a phony immigration officer who stamped two passports and travel documents for a fee.
The six were apprehended as they left the border at a security checkpoint after it was discovered that their travel documents contained an illegitimate immigration date stamp, and they implicated the bogus immigration officer.
Beitbridge, the busiest border post in southern Africa, serves as a hub for human trafficking syndicates, allowing people from all over the continent to enter South Africa illegally.
To smuggle desperate immigrants, the syndicates take advantage of corrupt border officials in both countries.
Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi of South Africa has previously expressed concern about “corruption on the Zimbabwe side of the Beitbridge Border Post.”
Dr. Motsoaledi accused Zimbabwean soldiers of taking bribes to help people cross the border illegally earlier this year.
During a visit to the border post, he said he was shown evidence of travellers without valid Covid-19 vaccination certificates or passports being “assisted” by soldiers to enter South Africa.