Immigration chaos hurts efforts to fight crime

How did Yagnesh Devani (or his look-alike nephew, if the Police Commissioner is to be believed) come to bear seven passports? How did Artur Margaryan and Artur Sargasyan get hold of Kenyan papers? How do "undesirable aliens" that are deported from the country on one passport end up back in the country as Kenyans? Is the registration of persons so completely corrupted that such identity fiascos cannot be avoided?

Identity documents like passports and national IDs are denied to many deserving Kenyans in an attempt to avoid registering Ethiopians or Somalis from Somalia. But the appearance of rigor in the vetting of applicants is clearly an illusion. Far too many instances of influential businessmen holding more than one passport have been reported for us to doubt the talk of rampant corruption at the Immigration ministry. These are not holders of fake documents as is sometimes claimed, but people who have found ways to have the rules bent for them. The existence of these special dispensations is what creates the confusion that surrounds identification of terror suspects, drug dealers, fraudsters and other undesirables.