Five suspects were arrested at the Beit Bridge Border Post for allegedly masquerading as immigration officials and police, in an effort to swindle unsuspecting travelers out of their money.

The suspects, one of them a security guard manning the exit gate, were arrested last Saturday, during an ongoing border operation aimed at flushing out criminals operating at the border post.

The exercise, which is carried out by the department of immigration, is targeting border jumpers, conmen, bogus customs clearing agents and individuals involved in corrupt tendencies.

The regional immigration manager in charge of Beit Bridge Border Post, Mr Charles Gwede, said his department had intensified the fight against corruption and border jumping at the border. “We have arrested several suspects operating at the border for impersonating police and immigration officers as well as facilitating border jumpers to cross the border in return for a fee,” he said.

Gwede said some of the security guards manning the gate were conniving with touts to help them find their way into the border area using fake clearing agents’ ID cards. “There is a lot of impersonation happening at the border, especially during the peak period where you find bogus clearing agents taking advantage of the confusion associated with congestion, to swindle unsuspecting travelers out of their money under the guise of offering assistance to help speed up the clearance process.

“A number of travelers continue to fall prey to these bogus customs clearing agents and we would like to urge people to be wary of such individuals,” he said. Gwede said some of the suspects wore uniforms similar to the ones worn by immigration officers and, in the process, caused confusion among travellers.

He attributed the prevalence of border jumping and other crimes to an acute shortage of staff to man both the entry and exit gate effectively.

“The other problem is that the border post is multi-faceted, with many stakeholders, to such an extent that in some cases it becomes difficult for first-time travelers to differentiate between a genuine immigration officer and a non-immigration employee. The criminals also find their way through several holes along the perimeter fence, which was vandalized by border jumpers.”

Gwede said a massive border clean-up exercise involving police and other stakeholders would soon be launched in line with the recommendations made by the local sports, tourism and communication taskforce committee, aimed at improving the country’s image ahead of the soccer World Cup next year.

Beit Bridge is the busiest inland port of entry in sub-Saharan Africa.