Immigration officer falsifies status of 121 people

A Bangladeshi businessman and a Dubai Airport immigration officer were found guilty of paying and accepting bribes and falsifying the status of 121 people in the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department’s computer system. Both were sentenced to two years in jail.

The Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance also ordered the two to jointly pay Dh33,800 as fine and deportation of the expatriate after serving his jail term.

According to the records, the Prosecution accused BDB, 41, business of paying Sergeant YIM, 34, Emirati – fugitive- a total of Dh96,800 from June to July 21, 2012 for falsely registering departure of 121 expatriates of different nationalities in DNRD’s electronic system including some who had overstayed their visas.

YIM is accused of asking and accepting Dh96,800 as bribe for forging electronic documents by registering the departure of 121 people without them actually leaving the country and inserting early departure dates in the case of those who had overstayed their visas to help them avoid fines. YIM is also accused of using forged documents.

BDB confessed that he knew the immigration officer since January 2010 and in June 2012 he asked him to forge the departure of visitors against paying him Dh850 per person without them leaving the country.

On the day of the arrest, that is July 21, BDB received a call from YIM telling him that he had finished feeding into the immigration department’s computer system about the departure of a number of visitors and asked him for payment of Dh1,800.

DBD told investigators that YIM is his partner in a foodstuffs business and that he used to send him SMS messages from different mobile numbers with the numbers of visas for registering false departures. Checking the SMS messages of the accused’s mobile, police found out that he had also forged departures of 11 visitors in July 2011 and 11 others in July 2012.

Corporal Mansour Omar, who was assigned to investigate suspicious transactions, testified that YIM worked for the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD) since 2008 as an officer in the arrival hall of Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 1. It was part of his job was to feed into the electronic system information about passengers -- UAE residents, visitors, or tourists -- arriving in the country. YIM was also assigned to move to the departure hall to register information about passengers leaving the country.

According to the rules, if a passenger overstays the visa, a fine should be paid prior to departure. Since tour operators have a limited number of visas, they have to ensure departure of some to get visas for others, he explained.

If a company fails to ensure departure of visitors whose visas had expired, the company will be black listed. And if the visitor has absconded, the tour operator must lodge an abscond complaint with DNRD besides furnishing Dh5,000 in bank guarantee.

“It came to the DNRD’s knowledge that there were some visitors who had been registered in the electronic system to have left the country while in fact they were in UAE. Investigating the information, we found out that it was YIM who had registered the departures of those people when he was assigned to work in the arrival hall.

“Checking with Dnata about the status of the listed passengers, we found out that all of them had not left the country. We also found out that YIM had visited the arrivals hall while he was not on duty, logged into the system via a machine using his password and falsely registered the departure of some visitors, some of whom had overstayed their visas and should have paid fines.

“Surpisingly, on the same day we informed YIM that he will be investigated about some suspicious transactions, he processed the departure of 17 people.  Confronting YIM later with the list of names of people who were shown on the computer system to have left the country while in fact they were still in UAE, he admitted to doing that for money as he was facing financial difficulties and that his partner in business had exploited his need for money and had pressurised him to process illegal transactions,” Corporal Mansour Omar testified.

YIM claimed that his business partner used to pay him between Dh200 to Dh250 per transaction and that he did not know how much his partner used to get from the holders of the visas whom he never met. YIM confessed that he had received about Dh20,000 to Dh25,000 for the forged documents of about 100 visitors. He admitted to forging the departure of 17 visitors on the day he was summoned for investigation. Investigators retrieved the picture of his business partner from the system and he admitted to taking bribes from the same person.

In coordination with YIM, BDB was trapped and arrested red handed while handing over Dh1,800 to YIM in Al Baraha area.

BDB confirmed YIM’s confessions except for the amount of the bribe. DBD claimed that he used to bring those who want to be falsely registered as having left the country despite continuing to stay in UAE against Dh850 per person. “My commission was Dh50 while YIM got Dh800 per visa,” BDB testified.

Records mentioned that the two had forged transactions over longer periods than the month in 2012. Dnata reported non-departure of 124 visitors of different nationalities.

DBD was detained while YIM was bailed against seizing his passport.

Records did not say how YIM became a fugitive.

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