Security at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) has arrested four people in connection with two separate cases of immigration fraud and suspected human trafficking. Kenyans.co.ke.
In the first case, during a routine check, officials stopped a passenger who tried to travel to Amsterdam, after irregularities were noticed in his travel documents.
A subsequent check revealed that he was in possession of a forged visa for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Further investigation led to the arrest of another person, who is suspected of having organized and facilitated his trip.
As announced by the Kenya National Police Service (NPS), the suspect will face charges of human trafficking and immigration fraud.
In another, separate incident at the same airport, authorities detained a Sudanese national en route to the UK after immigration officials discovered he was in possession of a forged UK residence permit. The investigation then led to the arrest of a Kenyan national, who is suspected of facilitating the trip by using false documents.
These cases come after police officers from the Lucky Summer Police Station in Nairobi arrested 10 Ethiopian nationals on February 5, who were found without travel documents and identification documents during a routine security operation on the Korogocho-Lucky Summer road.
The police announced that the persons were detained for further investigation, and that they will be prosecuted before the court and subjected to valid administrative and immigration procedures in accordance with the law.
The Kenyan media also reminds of earlier cases. Over the past year, an Ethiopian national reported paying 700,000 Kenyan shillings to be smuggled through JKIA airport. He was later intercepted by authorities in Malawi, after which he was deported back to Kenya.
Also, in 2021, the High Court of Kenya upheld charges of human trafficking against a taxi driver who facilitated the transit of Tanzanian and Ugandan citizens through JKIA airport to Middle Eastern countries, thereby confirming the role of local facilitators in cross-border smuggling networks.
In response to the ongoing risks of human trafficking and smuggling, the Kenyan government has implemented a number of additional measures at JKIA airport. The airport now applies a specialized inter-institutional approach, which includes the Better Migration Management (BMM) and Airport Communication Project (AIRCOP) programs, with the aim of identifying and monitoring suspicious passenger movements through coordinated intelligence sharing.
Additional measures include the establishment of work stations at the airport, which check the travel documents and work visas of Kenyans traveling to the Middle East. The authorities state that the aim of these measures is to reduce cases of human trafficking that are disguised as false offers of employment abroad.
(TYPE/Source: Faktor/Kenyans.co.ke/Photo: Nairobi)
