Immigration denies entry to 36 foreign nationals
Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services officers at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) denied 36 nationals entry into the country after noting that visa letters they displayed upon entry were not original.
KIA Immigration spokesperson Martin Gongolo said, out of the 36, 34 were Pakistan nationals while two were Somalis.
He said the 36 travelled on an Ethiopian flight from Addis Ababa and landed at the airport at 12:30am on Friday.
“Upon checking their documents, it was discovered that their visa letters were not original and were thus handed over to Ethiopian Airlines officials.
“The officers had no choice but to send them back to Pakistan via Addis Ababa where they came from,” Gongolo said.
In November last year, the department ejected nine foreign nationals for overstaying in the country. Six of them were Indians, one each from Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Nigeria.
Courts in the Central Region ordered the Zimbabwean and Nigerian to pay K200,000 fine each while the Indians were fined K27 million each.
Mathews Kasanda is a journalist who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from University of Malawi (The Polytechnic).
In 2015, Media Institute of Southern Africa awarded him the Best Print Media Education Journalist of the Year accolade.
He joined Times Group Newsroom in September 2019.
