11-04-2022 – The Department of Immigration in Nyimba has apprehended eighty-seven (87) Ethiopian nationals and one other person of Ethiopian origin whose nationality is yet to be determined. The Officers at Nyimba Immigration Office intercepted the first group of 24 on 7th April, 2022. They pursued and managed to apprehend the other sixty-four (64) as of 10th April, 2022, as they hid in the hills in Kacholola. The five (05) day operation followed a tip-off from a Zamtel Employee who had reported spotting some foreigners in the bush during a routine inspection of a Tower. However, none of the Eighty-Eight (88) had any documentation on them during their apprehension. They are currently detained at Nyimba Correctional Facility pending further immigration formalities.
Similarly, the Katete Immigration Office, on 3rd April, 2022, also intercepted Twenty-Six (26) Congolese nationals in a suspected case of human smuggling. The sixteen (16) adults and ten (10) juveniles were stopped at a Check-Point mounted on Great East Road near Mpito Village in Kawaza’s Chiefdom aboard a Chipata-bound Zebra-Kiss Coaches Public Service Bus. This was after the Officers conducted an immigration status verification exercise on all passengers on board, following a tip-off from concerned members of the public. Among the Twenty-Six (26) intercepted was a Fifty-Seven (57) year old Congolese male Yaya Ngongo, who is suspected of having attempted to smuggle the Twenty-Five (25) Congolese. The Katete Immigration Office intends to charge Yaya Ngongo with 25 counts of attempted smuggling. At the same time, the sixteen (16) adults are likely to face the offence of consenting to be smuggled. The two (02) incidents bring the number of persons apprehended by the Department of Immigration for various immigration offences between 3rd and 10th April, 2022 to Two Hundred and Forty-Two (242).
Meanwhile, the Department also removed One Hundred and Thirty-Two (132) illegal immigrants from Zambia during this same period and secured sixty (60) convictions.
