Entebbe Airport yellow fever scam exposed BY EDRIS KIGGUNDU Attendants openly ‘rob’ travellers heading to China A sophisticated racket of workers at Entebbe International airport is minting millions of shillings daily from unsuspecting travellers to China by extorting money from them ostensibly to process a yellow fever vaccination certificate, an investigation by The Observer has revealed. China does not require travellers from Uganda to carry along this certificate, two officials at the Chinese embassy in Kampala confirmed to The Observer this week. The well-placed officials, who declined to be named, emphasised that Ugandans intending to travel to China are made aware of the requirements when they are applying for a visa, and a yellow fever certificate is not one of them. “Yellow fever card? No…we don’t ask. In Uganda there is no yellow fever, why should we ask [for] it?” one of the officials told us. Visa requirements According to the Chinese embassy website, travellers to China are required to pay Shs 130,000 for a single entry visa in addition to proof of where the visitor will be staying in China and evidence that one can meet their financial needs (See: chinese-embassy.info/africa/visa-uga.htm). However, our investigation has revealed that an extensive syndicate at Entebbe airport that stretches from the seemingly well-heeled airport staff manning the check-in desks at the departure lounge to the security personnel imposes the yellow fever certificate as a requirement for travelers to China well knowing it is not. When unsuspecting travelers are cornered by Entebbe Handling Services (ENHAS) staff placed between the first security check and the airline check-in desk, they are told they can’t travel until they have been vaccinated at the airport clinic located near the arrivals lounge. The unscrupulous airport staff have been able to sell the yellow fever dummy to people going to China and not the UK or USA because they know a number of countries in Asia such as Malaysia and Thailand insist on a yellow fever certificate before entry. They thus try to lump in China, well knowing that many businesspeople are heading there. The main orchestrators of this scheme are employees of ENHAS, the firm contracted to do ground clearing at Entebbe, and Das Air Cargo, another firm that specialises in handling cargo at the airport. Our investigations have revealed that they enjoy the protection of some rogue security elements in the aviation police, a specialist security unit charged with securing the airport. To make their activities appear formal, they in many cases operate through the Airport Medical Centre, which is partly owned by Civil Aviation Authority although it is run by Kazuri Medical, a private health provider. Uganda’s deputy consul in China based in Guangzhou, Paul Mukumbi, recently told a delegation of Ugandans, in a sarcastic way, that Uganda was the only country in the world “that controls entry to other countries at its airport.” Indeed, permitting or denying entry to a country is usually a decision of the immigration section of the country of destination. Mukumbi told the delegation that included MPs, travel agents, businesspeople and journalists that he had raised the issue of yellow fever certificates with airport officials at Entebbe. But the extortion continues. In fact, one of the MPs on that trip confessed that he too had been conned. How syndicate works Countries that insist on yellow fever certificates as a prerequisite for entry, such as South Africa, make it explicitly clear at the visa application stage. Other countries such as Tanzania and South Sudan also require travellers to carry the certificate but they do not enforce it as strictly as South Africa does. Like sheep headed to the slaughterhouse, travellers to China are usually led down this path of extortion without any choice. After they clear with the security at the entrance of the departure lounge, travellers are then asked to proceed to a desk, a few metres away to have their documents scrutinized further. The scam commences at this desk that is manned by uniformed employees of ENHAS, often women. These workers, once they confirm from your travel documents that you are headed to China, they ask whether you have carried the certificate. Without it, they say, you will not be allowed entry into the country; therefore, you will not be allowed onto your flight. Airline officials manning check-in desks, particularly Kenya Airways staff, will normally confirm what these officials are saying. The ENHAS staff will then offer to ‘help’ you secure one at between Shs 100,000 ($40) and Shs 250,000 ($100), depending on their sense of judgment of your financial ability. No receipts are issued. Alternatively, they will send you to the airport clinic, Kazuri Medical, where a certificate is obtained without hassle after payment. From the appearance of the yellow fever cards issued (usually photocopied or in faint print), the evidence of the shoddiness of their work is laid bare. Unknown to the victim, the “medical worker” who hands you the certificate in the clinic could be a conman/woman, playing his or her part in the syndicate. On other occasions, the certificate is handed to the victim in an isolated place within the airport complex to avoid easy detection. The workers in this syndicate have developed a unique mode of communication, The Observer has learnt. They wink or make hand signals to one another to ensure that only they can understand what is going on. At times they can be rude if the victim is not ‘cooperative’, according to experiences from different people who have travelled to China. It is possible that on an average day, they can make up to $4,000 (Shs 10 million) – which is equivalent to extorting 40 people of $100 each. Yet for victims of this scam, it is a choice between missing your flight and acquiescing to their demands. “They just box you into a corner and at that point you have nothing to do but to pay them,” said one of the victims who requested for anonymity. Other travellers who have tried to resist the machinations of this scam have rarely succeeded. One of them, Muhammed Kasato (not real name), a businessman dealing in solar energy products and a regular traveller to China, told The Observer that during his first visit to China, five years ago, he had to part with $100 to get the certificate. Then, he says, he was naive and feared that he could be denied entry into China. But as he started to travel regularly to China and after discovering that the yellow fever certificate was not an essential requirement, he confronted the airport workers. Once, he said, he deliberately refused to display the card even when he had carried it, and he sparked off a war. One female staff apparently beckoned a security officer to handle him but Kasato stood his ground, insisting that if it is indeed a requisite requirement, why would the staff at Entebbe care so much that he will be denied entry to China! They let him go and since then, they have not bothered him. Arrest them George Tytens, the managing director of ENHAS, appeared shocked by the revelation that his employees could be involved in the scam. “I am the wrong person to approach on this matter. Go and report them to police and if they are arrested, I will be happy to sack them,” Tytens told The Observer in his office on Wednesday, declining to comment any further. Lodovick Awita, commandant of the Aviation Police, acknowledged the existence of the yellow fever card scam and said they were doing all within their power to fight it. “They threaten people that you are going to miss your flight if you don’t pay for the card. We arrested some of them in July but I know they are still there,” he said. Asked whether he was aware that some of his personnel might be part of the syndicate, Awita said that was not true. He said that if this were the case, they would not have made progress in the fight against this syndicate. Dr James Eyul, who heads the airport clinic, told The Observer that he was surprised that his facility was being used to facilitate extortion. “Here we carry out genuine vaccinations. Before you are issued with a card, we have to first inject you [with a vaccine]. After that, your name is entered in the book and you are issued with a receipt,” Eyul said. A genuine yellow fever card, he said, costs $40 (Shs 100,000) at the clinic. But Dr Eyul confirmed he was aware that some people at the airport were extorting money from travellers under the pretext of getting them yellow fever cards, which in most cases were forged. Eyul doubted whether any of his 15-member staff could be an accomplice in such a scam but acknowledged that there was need for more vigilance. Sources at the airport have told us that there are efforts to try to rein in the perpetrators of the scam but the real culprits have not been netted. In July, our source said, three workers in the cargo section were arrested after they tried to extort money from two intelligence officers disguised as travellers in exchange for forged yellow fever certificates. “They were taped on camera,” the source said. Two were dismissed but one, according to our source, was released and reinstated at work after he appealed to a relative, who is a senior police officer. [email protected]
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 13:46:36 +0000
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