Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has lauded the Border Management Authority (BMA) for its work following the detection of a group of Bangladeshi nationals who arrived in Johannesburg without proper documentation.
BMA immigration officials intercepted a group of 10 Bangladeshi nationals who arrived at OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) on Saturday on a Qatar Airways flight.
Some of these travellers did not have the proper documentation to enter South Africa.
According to a statement by ACSA, five of the passengers were refused entry as four presented fake visas purportedly issued by the South African High Commission, in New Delhi, India, and one had a fake visa supposedly issued by the Department of Home Affairs.
“Of the other five, one traveller had a valid permanent residence permit, three had valid relative visas and one was in transit to Eswatini. This group was granted entry into South Africa,” the statement read.
ACSA Regional General Manager Jabulani Khambule lauded the latest interception of illegal travellers, and praised officials for their hard work and dedication to protecting South Africa’s points of entry.
“This latest successful interception of illegal travellers by the BMA demonstrates the importance of our multi-agency safety and security approach throughout our environment to enhance airport and aviation security in general. We have rolled out this aviation security model that is vertically and horizontally integrated with various law enforcement authorities to root out criminality across our airports,” said Khambule.
Khambule warned that ACSA has a zero-tolerance approach to criminal or unlawful behaviour at OR Tambo International Airport.
The latest incident comes after BMA immigration officials intercepted a group of 28 travellers from Bangladesh who arrived at OR Tambo International Airport on a flight from Dubai on May 25.
The passengers were denied entry into South Africa after they were found to not to have the required legal documentation.
One person did not have a visa, while the others were found to be in possession of fraudulent visas.
Cape Times