A scheme to issue fake entry visas into Mozambique from the embassy and national consulates in neighboring South Africa has damaged the country by more than three million meticais, according to the Central Bureau for Combating Corruption (GCCC).

Forty-eight people belonging to an alleged international fake visa network, facts that occurred between 2016 and 2018, have been the subject of GCCC investigations.

The scam was initially detected at the Nelspruit consulate and investigations conducted by inspections by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and the National Migration Service (SENAMI) showed that similar problems were occurring at consulates in Johannesburg and Durban, according to the GCCC.

In Case No. 76/GCCC/ 18-IP, indicted and referred to the Maputo City Judicial Court, the defendants are charged with crimes of embezzlement, abuse of office or function, aiding illegal immigration, forgery of documents, association to commit a crime, active corruption, passive corruption and violation of professional secrecy.

According to the GCCC, the defendants also made illicit charges for issuing entry visas into the country.

Some of these officials used state money in improper payments on their behalf to restaurants and stores, medical and medication assistance, and travel.

The investigation detected situations where visas were granted to foreign citizens who did not meet the requirements for obtaining them.

In these schemes, third parties were involved, with no ties to the state, known as intermediaries or consultants. They acted from Mozambique, attracting interested parties, mostly of Chinese and Bangladeshi nationality, according to the source.

The intermediaries collected the passports for cash and sent them to the diplomatic and consular missions in South Africa in passenger buses, and in some cases visas were granted in less than 24 hours.

At the border crossing, according to the source, the passports were handed over to SENAMI officials, who stamped them as if the rightful owners had made the migratory movement.

There are passports of people who lived and worked in the country and others in states where Mozambique has diplomatic representations.