The first group consisted of 43 people of various nationalities who arrived on an Ethiopian Airways flight from Addis Ababa in the first week of January. The authorities said that all 43 had forged visas in their passports.
The following week, a flight of Kenya Airways, from Nairobi, was carrying 25 people with phoney documentation – 15 Bangladeshis, six Pakistanis and four Somalis. They were sent back to Nairobi on the return flight.
On Monday, the police announced the detention of a further 34 people (including 19 Somalis and 13 Bangladeshis). They had also arrived on an Ethiopian Airways flight. Some have already been returned to Addis Ababa, while the others are awaiting deportation in Maputo police stations.
Maputo City police spokesperson Orlando Mudumane also told reporters he had no information about an incident, reported in the Portuguese press, involved the abduction of two pilots from the Portuguese airline TAP.
According to the Portuguese weekly “Expresso”, which cited TAP sources, the two men were abducted when the taxi they were using received orders to stop from five armed men, wearing Mozambican police uniforms.
The two pilots were held for about an hour and a half, and were obliged to hand over all the money on their persons.
Late last year, three policemen were sentenced to long prison terms for their involvement in the kidnappings of businessmen and their relatives.
Post published in: Africa News