Immigration deports 9 foreign nationals

Immigration Department has ejected nine foreign nationals it arrested on the offence of overstaying in the country.

Central Region Immigration spokesperson Ealack Banda Sunday said the individuals involved did not have necessary documents to stay in the country.

“The Immigration Act Section 21(1) requires that every foreign national found in Malawi should have a legal residential permit. The nine people we have deported did not have permits,” Banda said

He said immigration officials had been alert in the past four months, in which they have deported six India nationals Digvijay Annasaheb Khot, Balakhrishna Vilas Patil, Sagar Arvid Bhondve, Dharam Singh, Ganesh Krishnat Kumbhar and Patil Pavan Chandrakant; one Zimbabwean Dorothy Matofo; Tanzanian Kassim Abdalla Kingo; and Abubakar Shuaib from Nigeria.

Courts in various Central Region districts imposed K200,000 fines on the Zimbabwean, Nigerian and Tanzanian, respectively, while the India nationals were fined K27 million each.

The courts also ordered that the convicts be deported from the country.

Meanwhile, immigration officials in the administrative region are keeping 14 foreign nationals at Maula Prison pending deportation. They include seven Nigerians and three Chinese. The other four are a Congolese, Rwandese, Tanzanian and Kenyan.

Coincidentally, the department has just secured the conviction of three Nigerians at Nathenje Magistrates’ Court. The convicts were arrested last week on charges of illegal stay in the country.

“The court found them guilty and fined them K200,000 each or that they should, in default, serve nine months in prison. The court also ordered that they be deported soon after paying the fine or serving the prison sentences,” he said.