Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Malawi, Amy Diaz, has revealed that the United States (US) has had issues with the integrity of visa requests from Malawians, with the embassy seeing misuse of official and diplomatic visas.
Diaz was speaking during Sunday’s edition of Times Television’s The Hot Current programme, in which she had been invited to shed light on the surge in rejections of visa applications by her country.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently wrote to the embassy, seeking an explanation after scores of Malawians, including government officials, were denied visas to the US.
In the programme, Diaz said some Malawian passport holders overstay in her country, contravening the conditions of their visas.
“It appears that the diplomatic overstay rate for Malawi is nearly 10 percent, which is extraordinarily high. Typically, the overstay rate for diplomatic or official passports is one percent or less.
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“This means we are receiving diplomatic notes from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting visas for holders of official or diplomatic passports, and they travel to the United States, overstay their visas, apply for asylum or work illegally in the United States,” Diaz said.
Regarding the recent rejections of visas for officials and others set to travel for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings in Washington DC, Diaz said the embassy worked hard to process what she described as the most important government officials to attend these meetings.
She indicated that among the 43 applications, there was one individual who attended last year’s Spring Meetings, took two other travellers with them and that both of those individuals have yet to return.
“One of them has already applied for asylum and the other seems to be in the process of doing so. These are serious cases,” Diaz said.
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She added that when the embassy cannot rely on the integrity of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ diplomatic notes, it must be extremely careful in its visa processing, which results in a much longer verification process.
The US embassy official also said her country has had serious misconduct by a senior Malawian diplomat, who was found liable in a civil court in the US but has not paid her $1 million judgement.
She then said her goal is to protect visas for all Malawian students wishing to study in the US and for all businesses that depend on travel to that country.
“[However], we must slow down now to ensure that we reduce overstays so we do not jeopardise visas for any other category of visa applicant from Malawi. I believe this is the right thing to do,” Diaz said.
Further details from her comments indicate that Malawi has not been serious about several diplomatic issues, including providing passport exemplars for diplomatic, official and regular passports.
“This is a very standard request from all countries. The reason we ask for these is to ensure that when we place visas in any passport, we are using authentic Malawian passports.
“Despite numerous requests over nearly three years, we have never received these exemplars. I have exemplars for the government of Zimbabwe from when I served as a consular officer there,” she said.
She also hinted at the possibility of Malawi losing the privilege of having its visa applications processed locally.
The US is one of the few overseas countries that process visas locally, with the rest being processed in South Africa and other countries within the region.
“I don’t want Malawi to lose that privilege. But unless we address these concerns and restore the integrity of diplomatic notes, reduce visa requests and, most importantly, reduce overstays and asylum requests, we may have to consider taking more drastic measures,” she warned.
Diaz reiterated the need to address the “serious issue of misconduct” by a Malawian diplomat in the US “who was convicted for the abuse and trafficking of her personal maid.”
“The fact that this individual still works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a very troubling precedent, and it raises concerns not just with the US government but with other governments who work in Malawi,” she said.
Our sister paper Malawi News recently reported that the US had rejected 39 visa applications from officials to attend the IMF meetings out of the 43 applications.
The rejection prompted an official request for clarification from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to a source, the US Embassy granted visas only for the Minister of Finance, the Secretary to the Treasury, the Reserve Bank Governor and the Malawi Revenue Authority Commissioner General.
The source further said that those denied visas included traditional chiefs, spouses of the officials and some senior party members.
In its letter, the ministry said it had “noted with great concern the high rejection rate of visa applications submitted by Malawian government officials travelling on official business to the United States of America.”
“The ministry acknowledges that the issuance of visas and entry into the US is at the discretion of the US government. However, the ministry has made significant efforts to comply with the agreed procedures…” the letter read.
Minister of Information Moses Kunkuyu said attendance at the IMF Spring Meetings is by invitation from the IMF.
