Mozambique: Insurgents attack buses, kidnap driver - Lusa
Photo: in file CoM
The Maputo City Court has rejected attempts by the former Mozambican Consul in the South African city of Nelspruit, Ester Tomo, to obtain provisional release, while awaiting trial for her role in a fraudulent scheme consisting of the unlawful use of State funds and illegal charging for issuing visas, according to a report in Tuesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.
Tomo is part of a group of 48 individuals charged by Mozambique’s Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC) for their involvement in the scheme to misappropriate state funds, and she is currently under custody.
The fraudulent scheme involved members of the National Immigration Service (SENAMI) and others from the country’s diplomatic and consular missions as well as people who are foreign to the public administration. The latter have been granted bail.
The staff would issue entry visas for foreign residents without complying with the established procedure such as a mandatory check by SENAMI on the applicant’s criminal record, and assessment of his or her immigration profile.
Under the scheme, individuals who had no connection with the Mozambican state, acted as middlemen, and sought out visa applications, mostly from people of Chinese or Bangladeshi nationality.
The paperwork and money were ferried by bus to the Mozambican diplomatic missions in neighbouring South Africa and, depending on the situation, visas were issued in less than a day. The passports were presented to SENAMI at the border and stamped as if part of normal immigration.
The visas were issued mostly for foreign individuals living in countries where Mozambique has diplomatic representation as well as those already living and working in the country, who should thus have no need to use middlemen to obtain visas.
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