Friday, March 29, 2024

Ndola’s illegal immigrants operation clean up nets 680 people

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AN operation by a combined team of security agencies shifted to Ndola yesterday where 680 foreign nationals were rounded up for screening and 200 have been detained after failing to provide sufficient documentation.

The door-to-door operation on houses suspected to have foreigners which was conducted in Itawa, Kansenshi, Ndeke, Skyways, Twapia townships and the industrial area began in the early hours of yesterday and lasted until midday.

The joint operation involved police, Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), the Immigration Department and the Zambia Security Intelligence Service (ZSIS) officers who rounded up foreign nationals and took them to Musa Kasonka Stadium in Masala for screening.

Immigration Department public relations spokesperson Namati Nshinka said yesterday that 200 foreigners, mainly Somalis, were detained after a screening exercise for failure to provide documentation of their stay in Zambia.

“The operation has been concluded and a total of 680 people of different nationalities were apprehended and of those, 200 are detained,” he said.

Mr Nshinka said those detained are Egyptians, Ugandans and Somalis.

He said some of the detained foreigners failed to provide any documentation while others will have their documents verified with the Immigration Department head office in Lusaka.

At Musa Kasonka Stadium, there was heavy presence of police in riot gear while the screening exercise went on inside the stadium, disrupting Ndola United Football Club’s training session.
Players, who were reporting for their daily practices, were turned away by police and later officials came to collect the club’s cooking utensils.

After undergoing screening, some foreigners were released and walked home freely with curious Masala township residents flocking to watch the proceedings.

And 136 illegal immigrants have been apprehended in the recently-launched countrywide clean-up operations aimed at getting rid of illegal immigrants.

Ministry of Home Affairs head of public relations Moses Suwali has advised members of the public to ensure they carry valid personal documents all the time to avoid being mistaken for illegal immigrants.

Mr Suwali said in a statement yesterday that the operations are being undertaken by the police, Immigration and Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC).

“On Tuesday, a combined team of officers from the immigration, DEC and police swung into action in Emmasdale, Matero and Chaisa townships and apprehended suspected illegal immigrants mainly Somalians,” he said.

Mr Suwali said after the screening process that about 136 illegal immigrants were found with no documents and have since been detained in various police stations across Lusaka.
He said the screening process will continue because some of them claimed that they left the documents at their homes.

“Some of them were found with drugs, large sums of money and IT equipment suspected to be used for pornographic materials,” Mr Suwali said.

“The Immigration department will consider removing the illegal immigrants from the country to their countries of origin to cut on time and money and avoid congesting police cells and prisons which are already under pressure,” he said.

Mr Suwali commended the public for availing intelligence information regarding illegal immigrants and encouraged them to continue.

He said it is through such tips from the public that operations of any kind can yield positive results, adding that the exercise will continue until the ministry is satisfied it has removed all illegal immigrants.

On Tuesday, the team conducted a similar operation in Lusaka’s Chaisa Township were hundreds of fore

27 COMMENTS

  1. Zambians carrying IDs. sounds like ifitupa in welenski. why not tighten border controls and make it an offense for a landlord to lent out property to an illegal migrant. or any one harbouring foreighners. especially our women folks, should also desist from marriages of convenience. otherwise we need these foreighners as they are drivers of the economy in some sector in Zambia. like energy, mines and general trade.

    • Good move ba immigration. Next close in on SATA and Kabwe PF youth leader SAID. They are illegal immigrant from Tanzania. Follow charcoal burners as well. Most of them are mwachusas from Tanzania . Willi Nsanda is another illegal immigrant from congo DRC Lubuambashi. Jean Kapata was born in Tanzania and came to Zambia with her parents illegally in the mid eighties.

      In PF there are so many illegal immigrants from Congo and Tanzania.

    • What will PF government gain from that exercise? We don’t get treated like that in other countries we go. Where is the so-called human rights advocates?

  2. It is normal for any sane person to move with identification papers not only for police check ups but a lot ie road carnages and many more.

    • NOSTRADAMUS…They call you don,t just write to condemn want ever govt do. am humbly advising you on the dangers of these so called illegal immigrants if you follow what happen in Kenya i think you know the importance of cleaning our compounds.problem with you people politics everything tangible why? IF YOU HURT PF JUST DO IT , CAN YOU GO TO SUDAN LET FREE WITHOUT DOCUMENTATION O OOH…

  3. give me your money people. i specialize in borrowing my friends money and not paying the buggers back. dum *****s

  4. Well Done they r a Security risk after some time they will START BOMBING us. Its only tht Zambians r dumb & dont ve FORESIGHT whn looking at things say 100yrs frm now, & r BUSY selling lands to some of these Foreigner.

    The POLITICIANS shud control ths & give CONDITIONS in the selling of Land. One neighbor to mum’s FLAT SOLD a HOUSE TO AN INDIAN without foresight & currently is hustling it excruciates me even today.
    MOREOVER SATA sometime Back made an EMPTY PROMISE

  5. Wanzelu Hungry Hyena does not know his biological father does it mean he is a foreigner or anyone else till his fathers’ roots are established? Stop hallucinating your fear of the president is bad for you. You constantly exhibit one of the worst form of hate that is deep rooted in your upbringing and where you hails from. On this blog we used have Maestro with a passion to support hungry hyena never did we had him exhibit this level of lunacy and forms of hate that is really of the philosophy of UPND that it’s belongs to Tonga and will be managed by a Tonga. It will take a big chuck of your time to change but if your change is through hate, envy, insults and lack of learning to bond with those you may not like to reach your destination .you will live to regret the missed chances of…

    • A father can be anyone. it takes only miliseconds. That’s why we are only sure who your mother is. Wonder why Nephews and nieces are the true relatives than the man’s children? don’t make a fuss about the father. Most of us are foster fathers these women folks know did the damage but they wont let it. They die with NO.

  6. “Ministry of Home Affairs head of public relations Moses Suwali has advised members of the public to ensure they carry valid personal documents all the time to avoid being mistaken for illegal immigrants.”
    Why should i do that in my own country ? This takes me back in memory lines, some years ago when i was travelling between Lusaka and Ndola and these officers at a check point isolated me and another man thinking we were foreigners i just answered him that “webo mune shimba waba ifi, bushe ulemona kwati bonse twenda nefitupa mumatumba mwa ? Awe mune chilaba ifi. Ala akalimo uchita umulele kalakupembela.” He beckoned me to go back to my seat in no time.

  7. I am totally against barring other Africans from coming to visit our territory. Ones black skin is all the passport you ever need to visit any part of Africa. Bushe what kind of independence is it that still holds tightly to borders drawn specifically to divide us? I thought fighting for independence meant tearing down all borders and uniting all Africa into one massive government with one army and president or dictator.

    • An idealistic view point, reality though tells us we will always find divisions amongst ourselves, as Saddam Hussein said, “my country man before a foreigner, my tribesman before my country man, my clansman before my tribesman, my cousin before my clansman , my brother before my cousin and myself before my brother”..and where did that get Saddam??? You are actually right unity is the best way forward but mankind is inherently evil and bound to fail at all moral endeavours.

  8. Don’t misunderstand this immigration operations, it’s for the safety of of the nation. No where in the world has skin colour been used for free intry let alone stay in another country. there’s no harm in moving with a ID

    • @Spy Mashra; this reeks of corruption more than any thing else. Follow up with this story in a week and see how many are in detention or deported. For all we know, they are being given NRC’s to vote in the next election. I know a lot of illegals where I live. But unless you involve yourself in criminal activities or like to beat up your wife, they pretty much leave you alone!

  9. Wantashi your thinking is of an infancy even an infancy can think better. Possibly to put this in a right way. Kenya is facing one of the worst terrorism in the Horn of Africa from Somali. These same individuals coming to Zambia in a polite and calm manner did the same in Kenya and we’re received with both hands. Today they behave like Kenya is not their second home that has accepted and given them opportunities and peace that they never had experienced in many many years. Zambia is peaceful because we have earned it and cherish one another regardless of having 73 tribes or different religions. we are brothers and sisters and we see these in ourselves. One day we will wake up with bombs targeting women and children. If they are not hiding anything why entering illegally in Zambia ?

    • @pafwenamwine this is very interesting and who told you that the people that were causing all the trouble in Kenya were foreigners and not Kenyans?? After those same deportations of the people you speak so lowly of there were still attacks being committed, as a matter of fact the Kenyan govt looked very stupid when they themselves admitted that the culprits were Kenyans trying to create confusion. So in this instance let’s be fair, next time you people that are happy with this exericise travel abroad and are treated like unwanted immigrants please remember this uncalled for exercise. Yes if someone is illegal deport them after following the due process of the law but do not conduct random searches that affect innocent people. We are now behaving like Congolese govt officials!!!

  10. Let also the neighboring countries conduct similar exercises to awaken us ,we locals who think that Zambia is paradise! their thousands of illegals Zambians living in the SADC countries out of courtesy of Africa brotherhood!

  11. As much as i agree that we need to have laws to control our borders but surely if they are not doing any crime let them stay the might help develop our country put them in the system for better control we are also in other countries but we are treated better we left zambia because there is nothing for us not connected to any powerful politicians or directors in zambia is who you know

  12. I think it is wrong to pick up people at random merely because they look different. I lived abroad for a while and not once was I ever asked to produce my documents even though I wasn’t white! Yes there are some foreigners that are abusing our hospitality but this is where investigative wings should do their job and not like a completely unplanned operation go about rounding people up. Very wrong and if I was one of these chaps that are inconvenienced I would sue the govt. Sorry normally I support the govt but seriously speaking this is not a right way of doing things.

  13. surly i am somalian and i do support this opration clean up coz we have a country which is better then 10000times zambia and we are still suffering like this country so i want to my people leant sometime how it is test living foreiner country then we will remember how bad and anwant we do our nation viva somalian i said one day you zambians you will remember us

  14. Good work immigration. A few weeks ago we had Angolans crossing over, but the official argument was that they could stay. So we are sort of taking some in and balancing it all up with raids. It would be better to tighten up borders. Don’t you sometimes wonder which article people are responding to? No father, etc.!! As for no.3 your friends are even drummer than you are, get someone to tell them about going to make a small claim in a county court. If they have evidence, your backside is theirs.

  15. It seems to me Zambia has some other issues or problems other than illegal immigrants. May be this is just a smoke screen.

  16. kilMany responses surprises me. Iam wandering even about those that say they have travelled. The govt has a duty to fully protect its citizens. and many crooks comes illegally in the country and cheat and destroy lives. they also create a strain on resources available to zambians.roads, accomodation etc. They do not pay taxes in there business be it employment tax or otherwise.senegalise,malians, ethopians,somalians are in local mining among other activities illegally. zambia is top producer of gemstones in the world and yet show nothing for it.one reason being, it done by illegal immigants. if you cheat yourself about how foreigners are treated, legal or illegal, go to botswana,south africa, congo even zimbabwe.indians and chinese are buying land unlegulatedly and we are smiling.shame

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