Ndeitunga livid over trafficking charges

Police chief Sebastian Ndeitunga said the arrest of an Air Namibia employee and his accomplice for alleged human trafficking is an embarrassment for the country and it is shocking that the “national carrier has been dragged into organised crime”.

The 32-year-old employee of Air Namibia, working at Hosea Kutako International Airport as a check-in agent, and a 29-year-old Angolan national were arrested on Monday for alleged human trafficking and officially charged yesterday.

Police spokesperson Deputy Commissioner Edwin Kanguatjivi confirmed the arrest, saying both men will appear in court today.

The arrest comes after the two men are said to have “smuggled” 11 Angolan nationals, which include seven children, two men and two women on an Air Namibia flight to Frankfurt.

They are suspected of having facilitated it so that for the 11 Angolan nationals could travel on Air Namibia's flight SW285 from Windhoek to Frankfurt on Monday.

All the passengers were detained by the German immigration police upon arrival in Frankfurt.

Kanguatjivi said that the 29-year-old Angolan will also be facing immigration charges as he has been residing in Namibia illegally since last year.

A furious Ndeitunga told Namibian Sun he was shocked and disturbed to hear about the incident.

“Now you have employees of the airline colluding with children and women. This is unacceptable. There are loopholes in our national carrier and this must be tightened up immediately,” an irate Ndeitunga said.

He said that this just demonstrates how Namibia is being used for human trafficking.

“This is the region for human trafficking.”

Ndeitunga said he is however relieved that those working with these dangerous organised criminal networks have been arrested.

“But there are still those out there, hiding, and they should be brought to book.”

He continued to say that Air Namibia employees should be better vetted.

“Not everyone should be given a job, because you can see what is happening, they are recruiting criminals and letting criminals through.”

“This is shocking and an embarrassment for the country, but also an eye-opener that we should be vigilant.”



'Political refugees'

Meanwhile the trafficked Angolans who are currently being held in Frankfurt have claimed that they are political refugees and it is still uncertain what will happen to them at this stage.

The German embassy in Windhoek told Namibian Sun investigations are still ongoing in their home country.

However, ambassador Christian Schlaga said he is grateful to Air Namibia and Nampol for the swift and comprehensive cooperation which led to the arrest of the persons suspected to have facilitated the attempted illegal entrance of the eleven Angolans to Germany.

“This case demonstrates yet again the necessity for the implementation of strict travellers' controls directly upon disembarking from the plane at German international airports,” he said.

Air Namibia spokesperson Paul Nakawa said the problem of inadmissible or illegal passengers is an international problem that all airlines have to deal with. According to him, the motives for such illegal migrations vary from personal, political and economic reasons to criminal such as human trafficking.

Air Namibia was in the news a few months ago when it denied boarding to a group of Zimbabweans who were booked to travel from Windhoek to Frankfurt with Istanbul as their final destination.

“There are criminal syndicates who facilitate this kind of activity and who bribe some of our employees to facilitate this type of crime. Please note that illegal passengers do not always travel with fraudulent passports – sometimes they carry legitimate passports and visas obtained somehow,” said Nakawa.

He said staff is trained to detect illegal passengers and sometimes use this knowledge to facilitate criminal activity for personal gain as possibly happened in this case.

“Once we received the information from the German police via our station in Frankfurt, we conducted a full investigation and enlisted the help of the police which has resulted in the two arrests with further arrests expected.”

Air Namibia also issued a stern warning to employees, contractors and agents in the strongest terms possible to desist from engaging in illegal activities that could endanger the safety of our airports, passengers and aircraft and tarnish the good name of our country.

“The message from the Namibian police and Air Namibia is that we will not allow our country and airline to be used by criminal syndicates for human trafficking and other crimes; and we will deal harshly and to the full extent of the law with anyone involved in these criminal activities.”



ELLANIE SMIT