WATCH | Eight foreigners held at OR Tambo airport while trying to enter SA illegally

Criminals

Cape Town – The Department of Home Affairs says it intends to reinstate transit visas following the arrest of eight illegal immigrants at OR Tambo International Airport.

Reports said that four illegal Bangladesh descendants and four illegal Pakistani nationals were caught trying to enter South Africa through the airport’s fire prevention system.

The immigrants, who arrived on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha on June 15, were allegedly questioned for eight hours, reports said.

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula visited the airport for a collaborated resolution to prevent such incidents, News24 reported.

Mostoaledi requested the involvement of state security to interrogate the immigrants, as there had been an influx of  Bangladeshi and Pakistani foreigners who came via Qatar Airways, a route used to get to Lesotho or Eswatini, the report said.

The immigrants were allegedly followed by airport police who found them entering the fire system.

“One of them was holding a phone, which meant they were being directed through the airport because they do not know it, as they are not from here,” News24 quoted Motsoaledi as saying.

Mostoaledi uncovered that since his department discontinued transit visas for travelling through South Africa, foreigners were now using South Africa as a transit point.

“Now we have border management authorities manning our borders but with this as Home Affairs, we’ve decided that the transit visas will once be needed. The state security debriefed them for a couple of hours and they had information about them. Though some of these things cannot be made publicly,” SABC News quoted Mostoaledi as saying. 
Mbalula, on the other hand, said that the incident indicated a well-coordinated attack on the laws governing safety and security at the country’s airports and the success of the security system, as they were able to detect and arrest these illegal immigrants.

“South Africa holds a good record of compliance and recommended practices. This is a record we intend to guard and it is the reason we will not tolerate any acts of illegality within our aviation space,” the report quoted him saying.

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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe 

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