Authorities in South Africa have announced the arrest of three suspects allegedly involved in the creation of forged marriage documents to enable foreign nationals to gain citizenship in the country, BBC reported.
A building in the city of Durban was raided by police on Monday, and authorities said evidence including application forms and ID copies were confiscated. Authorities, however, said one of the suspects had attempted to destroy the evidence at the time of the raid.
Police said they suspect several of those IDs belonged to local women, adding that those individuals were unaware they had been victims of theft. The suspects then used the stolen IDs to make fake marriage certificates and visas for foreigners.
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“When they come, they come as a married man to a South African woman. When they are here, they will divorce that woman,” regional police spokesman Col Robert Netshiunda told News24. “By that time, they got citizenship, so they brought more people. That’s the scam they were [allegedly] running.”
The number of suspects involved in the illegal act could, however, not be established while the nationalities of the foreigners who paid for their services are also unknown. Police said they’re searching for additional evidence by reviewing computers and hard drives they retrieved from the raided building.
Col Netshiunda also told SABC that the building that was raided was serving as a “clandestine home affairs office.” “They were facilitating marriages, visas and other services that Home Affairs would provide to South Africans,” Col Netshiunda added.
Police also said the suspects did not act alone as an insider at the government Department for Home Affairs could have aided them. Police said that the suspected insider had been identified, though an arrest was yet to be made.
South Africa being the biggest economy in Africa is a country of interest to foreign nationals seeking to migrate in search of greener pastures. The foreigners include those from Africa as well as a tiny fraction from Europe and Asia, BBC reported.
But there have been several reports of South Africans subjecting foreign nationals – particularly African migrants – to deadly xenophobic violence over the last few years.
