Zimbabwe deports 83 undocumented Malawian immigrants

Zimbabwe has returned 83 Malawian illegal immigrants to their country after detention at the Harare Remand Prison and Chikurubi Maximum Prison since their arrest on May 31.

According to a report by local media The Herald, the Malawians were arrested at a bus station for not having required documents to be in the country.

“These Malawians were arrested in Mbare on May 31 after they were found with unstamped passports, while some had no travel documents and others had passports which did not belong to them,” they quoted a senior immigration officer who requested anonymity.

“There were 42 women detained at Chikurubi Maximum Prison, 36 men were locked up at Harare Remand Prison and five children under 10 years were kept at SOS Children’s Village in Waterfalls because we do not detain children in prisons,” he added.

The Malawians were deported after consultation with the Malawian embassy that organised a bus for the exercise.

Malawi is in southeastern Africa bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west.

The landlocked country is in the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) together with Zimbabwe.

However, passports need to be stamped upon entry unlike the west African region where each ECOWAS-member country can freely enter any country with at least a national identification.