The Department of Immigration in Chirundu has apprehended 29 Male Ethiopian nationals for unlawful entry into the country.
The group, aged between 20 and 43 years, was intercepted after a tip-off aboard a containerized Truck Registration Number AJC 1177 which was parked at Wilu Truck Stop belonging to a retired police officer.
Department of Immigration Public Relations Officer, Namati Nshinka said the Ethiopians did not have any travel documents at the time of the incident and are currently detained at Chirundu Police Station pending further formalities.
Meanwhile the driver of the truck whose identity remains unknown managed to escape and remains at large.
The Immigration Department in Kapiri has also intercepted nine male Kenyans of Somali origin for the offences of concealing true identity and unlawful entry into Zambia.
The foreign nationals were nabbed at Lwanshimba Check-Point aboard a Lusaka bound public service bus belonging to Road Force Transport Limited.
In the same statement, Mr Nshinka disclosed that the nine were intercepted after officers who were conducting a physical verification of immigration status of the occupants of the vessel established that the nine concealed their true national identity when they presented Tanzanian travel documents of Identity when in fact, they were Kenyans of Somali Origin.
He said the illegal immigrants will soon be transferred to Kabwe for prosecution.
In a related development, Immigration Officers at Kazungula Border Control yesterday apprehended six individuals for unlawful entry, after they attempted to enter Zambia without passports.
Mr Nshinka said the three Zambians and three Namibians, all residents of Namibia, had come to Zambia for shopping.
The Zambians who were initially thought to be Namibians have since been warned and will soon be released from custody upon production of proof of citizenship.
He said the three Namibians remain detained and will be prosecuted.
This brings the number of persons apprehended by the Department for immigration-related offences to 187, between September 6th to 12th, 2021.
During this period the Department also secured 67 convictions and removed 77 illegal immigrants from the country.
This is according to a press statement issued to the media by Department of Immigration Public Relations Officer Namati Nshinka in Lusaka today.
Its clear that these Ethiopian nationals were merely in transit to possibly RSA if they were destined for Zambia they would not bypass our beautiful capital City to go to Chirundu. SA immigration should be paying for some of these costs …you detain all these illegal immigrates in remand mix them with other criminals indefinitely filling up our prisons. You need separate detention centres.
The ones we are worried about are the thousands of Pakistanis, Lebanese, Somalians and other middle easterners whom you’ve granted permits to legally live in Zambia. Some of these people are here on jihadi missions, money laundering, some don’t pay taxes, externalise millions of dollars a year back to their countries of origin, sone are busy converting our poor Zambians to Islam as a condition for jobs. These arrests are a smoke screen for the bigger loopholes in the immigration system. The people picked up were not even hiding. They were on a bus in large numbers. Their friends must have told them ‘ just jump on a bus. Zambia immigration are useless’.
Why arresting fellow Africans? And yet tomorrow you go to Addis Ababa to attend an AU summit, African Unity and yet you arrest your fellow African for merely being in an area whose boundaries were determinded by colonialists. What a shame!
They are African…let them go.
Ba paya muntu? if not let them go, prisons are too full. Waiting for real criminals. Those panga happy thugs.
When are the authorities arresting all the illegal Indians,Pakistanis and Chinkos? Leave those fine Africans alone coz we ‘re all working towards attaining one African passport.
If the world would be truly free and democratic, passports should not have existed and any person from any country may go to any other country without any restrictions