S. Africans 'buy passports’

Press, 27 March 1981, Page 5

S. Africans 'buy passports’

]\j2PA London A scheme for buying Paraguayan or other Latin American passports at $20,000 a time, which could be used particularly by South Africans unable to travel on their own • passports, is reported to be operating through London. An injunction to prevent publication of the details of the alleged scheme by the magazine “Africa Now.” was turned down by a judge m chambers on Wednesday. The report says that any South African businessman needing travel documents can obtain a Latin American passport through the assistance of a middle-man in London, Frank Dobson, described as a Zimbabwean with a family in Bulawayo. •Mr Dobson had advertised

offering legal advice on acquiring such documents. Mr Dobson, who sought the ■■ injunction, told “The Times” yesterday; “It.is not correct that I ami supplying passports for, South African businessmen.- I can' advise people on legal means .and methods of obtaining alternative citizenship. If applicants come to me from South Africa, I would gladly give them advice.” The publisher of “Africa Now,” Peter Enahoro, said that he was < delighted that the right of freedom of publication had been upheld. A similar scheme was proposed last year in Tonga, under which Tongan passports were to. be offered to people who . paid out $lO,OOO for a small block of land bn a barren island in

the South Pacific group. The measure failed to get through Parliament on its first reading, but was expected to be reintroduced.— The “Africa Now” report says that Latin American passports are supplied by a firm in Washington called Bufete International, set up in 1978.. To obtain a Costa Rican passport, the report says, a prospective client hands over $lO,OOO, places $30,000 on deposit in Costa Rica, and spends a few days in the country. According to the report, all that is required for a certain South ' American country's passport is a straight-payment of $20,000 paid to the Ambassador in Washington. The country in question is alleged to be

Paraguay. Clients who make the approach through the 'London office of Mr Dobson, the — report says, need to travel to Washington, to be taken through the process of acquiring a passport with Latin American officials. It states that an undisclosed number of South African and w’hite Zimbabweans have acquired Costa Rican or other passports through the Washington firm. A lawver for Bufete International’ in Washington acknowledged that the company provided advice and assistance for people seeking Latin American travel documents. He denied, however, that there was anything illegal or clandestine about the company’s work.