By Emeka Aginam, Vera Samuel Anyagafu & Prisca Sam-Duru
DESPITE the fact that most major embassies have outsourced their visa processes to VFS Global, Nigerians still flood embassies for visa where they encounter wily conmen and fronts for embassy officials who are willing to exploit the desperation of Nigerians to obtain entry visas to countries of their choice.

A common denominator in the facial expressions of these Nigerians visiting the embassies is frustration arising from disappointments often associated with refusals of their visa applications.

The tales of woes that they encounter are inadequate to discourage them from trying their luck as the whole exercise has become a game of gambling. The numerous complaints by intending travellers on the dailies as well as those sent directly into our emails, however, prompted visits to some of these embassies.

...some passports recovered

A lot of factors were discovered as responsible for continued visits to the embassies rather than to the office of the VFS Global and the issue of visa denial without cogent reason from the consular officers.

The managing director of a newspaper was given a 6.00 a.m appointment in Lagos by the US embassy. On the appointed day he braved the risks of leaving his home in Ikeja as early as 5.00 a.m, to get to Walter Carrington avenue early enough for his appointment.

He made it by 5.50 a.m and joined the queue. As the applicants prepared to get ushered in, an official of VFS Global came to ask him to staple his documents. He stepped out to do so and came back to rejoin the queue.

Simple procedural mix up

The VFS Global staff who saw his return to the queue which was for 7.00 a.m could not tell him to move in because they had called in the first batch which was the 6.00 a.m group where he was in the first place.

This simple procedural mix up was all that caused him his appointment and he lost his non refundable visa fee, and the trauma of getting  up so early on that fateful day. The pains of assembling his travel papers, he was not even given the chance to appear at the interview.

Here is a man managing a successful newspaper publishing company with a staff of over 1000 and branch offices in 36 states, including Abuja. A former Editor with Vanguard newspaper was also denied visa in very annoying circumstances and he went public with his story. Nigerian journalists are not spared of the hassles in the process of getting appointment for visa interview.

Given the nature of their job and the fact that they could make important travels in line of their duties, media men ought to be given preferential treatment. Ordinarily, media professionals who travel outside the country for genuine reasons ought to be treated as important citizens in visa issuance.

But unfortunately, embassy officials especially those in the Press and Public Affairs Section have been treating journalists with disdain, even when most of the embassies and high commissions have employed journalists to handle their colleagues.

When it comes to issuing visa referral letters, the press attaches in majority of the embassies turn their back. Ironically, getting appointment in consular sections of foreign missions in Nigeria by the media professionals has been like a camel passing through the eye of a needle.

The Press And Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy in Nigeria used to be helpful with visa referral letters but these days getting such letter is like squeezing water out of rock.

An embassy official had earlier told our reporter that based on privilege and international best practice, journalists ought to be given visa referral letter by the press section of foreign missions but they have been stopped from doing so.

He said, the media professionals should be given preferential treatment in visa application otherwise they may not be able get travelling documents that will enable them to travel to perform their professional roles as the conscience of the society.

Crucial roles of the mass media

With the kind of treatment meted on media professionals in the country, keen observers have wondered if the consular officers were trained to understand the crucial roles the media play in the society.

“I see no reason why an accredited journalist for internal training, conference or seminar should be refused a visa on economic or social reasons given the sensitive roles they play to shape the society for better”, a source in the Ministry of External Affairs told Vanguard in a interaction. But somehow, the German embassy is the most responsive to the plight of Nigerian media professionals in getting appointment for visa application.

In the course of this story our reporters encountered top officials of VFS Global, embassy officials and various kinds of characters who work as agents and proxies of some embassy officials. First we came in contact with a tall, lanky and fair-skinned young man who came to the Embassy of South Africa, complaining angrily that he was asked to produce a document as a supporting document for his scheduled journey, which was not demanded for, from the onset.

Though he was able to provide the document, his grouse was that the security officers at the gate refused him access into the embassy to explain his mission, rather he was asked him to come back the following day for the submission. His annoyance was that he was due to leave the country the next day.

All his entreaties fell on deaf ears, as securitymen were called to move him away from the premises of the embassy. As we inquired into what his next line of action was, he looked up with misty eyes and simply walked away. Still at the at the South African embassy, there was another encounter with another intending traveller who was not aware that the embassy has outsourced its visa operations to VFS Global.

Travel from the east

Some people who thought the embassy still handled visa matters were redirected to VFS Global. While they left, a young man who was disappointed beyond measure as he narrated how he travelled all the way from the east just to find out from the embassy, which insurance company in Nigeria is accredited by the South African embassy to issue insurance papers to applicants for Ph.D study.

He was told that that day, a Thursday, was a non working day for the staff. He was at loss of what next to do as according to him, he was running out of time besides; he didn’t have enough money to pay hotel bill or anywhere to pass the night.

A second encounter was that of a well dressed young man who approached us with such stunning cleverness. He actually thought we were at Walter Carrington Street for travel purposes. So, he offered to assist us obtain any type of visa we desired and at the time we needed it.

When he was asked if he was sure of doing what he claimed he could, he gave a convincing smile and said that we should just mention the country and visa type, with money at hand, and we would be smiling away in a flight to our country of choice.

We took him aside to a corner to discuss further so as to get more information and that was when he gave us his name as Kunle. He further revealed that he has a staff in one the embassies of the country we named as our choice (name withheld) that does his runs for him.

While he discovered our eagerness in getting visa as soon as possible, he instructed us to wait for him in one of the leading restaurants in same vicinity. We saw it as an opportunity to deal with the hunger that was at this time, unbearable. So, we located the kitchen, and lo and behold, the true story of what applicants experience in the hands of touts around the embassies got unfolded.

You cannot believe that when the guy returned to meet us at the kitchen, he gave us his name as Dayo, forgetting he earlier told us he was Kunle. We just acted ignorant as the visa business was top on the agenda. He was on and off, running in and out to get one application form and the other from God knows where and at the end of our discussions, he demanded that we pay a fee of about seven hundred thousand (N700,000) each to get a visa to visit our choice country. We were to pay the sum on two installments.

This fee which is per person as already indicated is inclusive of all the documents we claimed we did not have which he will arrange for us. Deal done and Kunle/Dayo insisted we wait for his partner who he said would not be able to leave the office until about 4-5 pm.

We were still pondering on whether to wait or not, when the owner of the kitchen walked up to us, introduced herself and said we should not mind that guy, that he has been defrauding unsuspecting individuals. She offered to give us the necessary assistance with whatever we needed from any of the embassies and further revealed her dealings with the main ogas of the embassies and not the Nigeria employees.

The decision to get whatever information we needed on the issue under study from this woman, after considering the calibre of people who were both whites and blacks that dine at her restaurant, which we thought added to her credibility, paid off as she disclosed more of the traumatic experiences Nigerians are subjected to in the hands of touts especially.

The touts, according to our informant, have one thousand and one names, once they collect more from their victims, they supply them with fake materials which are often prepared with the assistance of their connections within the embassies, they are issued with fake visa which they are oblivious of only for the traveller in question to be sent back by the supposed host country’s immigration.

Vanguard learnt of the case of one Bennie (surname with held) who was given a visa appointment interview date in Abuja in April to join her husband. Her application was turned down on grounds of “insufficient funds”, on her way back from Abuja she was involved in an auto crash at Akungba in Ondo State and died after a few weeks in the hospital in Akure.

These visa racketeers, according to findings, have continued to pose a big challenge to Police attaches of foreign missions. “Our brief is not to arrest touts outside the embassy. Any tout who operates inside the embassy will be dealt with accordingly.

It is the duty of the Nigerian police to arrest touts operating in the streets of Walter Carrington” a diplomat at the German Embassy, Lagos told Vanguard. He said: “No Police attaché of any embassy will arrest touts operating outside the building of any embassy. That is the duty of the Nigerian Police.”