28-05-2021 – The Lusaka Regional Immigration Office on 27th May 2021 secured the conviction of a 22 year old male Tanzanian, Anthanasi Meshack Karume for the offences of unlawful stay in Zambia and engaging in employment without a permit contrary to sections 11(3) and 54 of the Immigration and Deportation Act No. 18 of 2010 of the Laws of Zambia, respectively. He was arrested on 14th May 2021 in a shop in Kabwata after it was established that he had overstayed his visit and that he made no efforts to apply for an Employment Permit to allow him to work in Zambia. He was sentenced to twelve (12) months imprisonment with hard labour, without the option of a fine.
Similarly, the Ndola Regional Immigration Office has secured the conviction of a 54-year-old Congolese for the offences of unlawful entry and stay in Zambia contrary to sections 12(2) and 11(3) of the Immigration and Deportation Act No.18 of 2010 of the Laws of Zambia, respectively. In both counts of unlawful entry and stay, particulars are that Ngoyi Francois (26) on unknown dates but between 17th May 2021 and 19th May 2021 in Ndola entered and stayed unlawfully in Zambia without documents. He appeared before the Ndola Magistrate Court on 27th May 2021 where he was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of K 20,000 for both counts or in default 9 months simple imprisonment.
In a related development, in Chinsali a 23-year-old Kenyan businessman Abdirahman Ibrahim was on was 27th May 2021 convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of K 16,000 or in default eighteen (18) months simple imprisonment for concealing his true identity and being found in possession of a forged immigration stamp endorsement. He was arrested in Chinsali on 5th May 2021 for using a Tanzanian Travel Document number AB0646042, when in fact not a Tanzanian, and for being in possession of a Travel document bearing a forged immigration stamp endorsement. These convictions bring the total number of convictions secured by the Department in the last one week to forty-two (42).
Meanwhile, the Department of Immigration on 27th May 2021 removed seventy-five (75) Ethiopians from the country via Kenneth Kaunda International Airport. The vast majority were arrested in Eastern Province for entering the country illegally. This is part of an ongoing exercise aimed at decongesting the already overcrowded correctional facilities in part owing to an influx of Ethiopian illegal immigrants. This brings the total of illegal immigrants of different nationalities removed from the country in the last week to one hundred and fifty-five (155).
In another development, the Department of Immigration between 21st and 27th May 2021 apprehended eighty-seven (87) persons of different nationalities for various immigration offences, country-wide. During this same period, the Department also refused six (06) foreign nationals entry into Zambia for failing to meet entry requirements.
Meanwhile, Immigration Officers at Katima-Mulilo Border Control on 25th May 2021 received forty (40) Zambians from Namibia after they were removed from that country for unlawful entry. On the same day, Immigration Officers at Sakania Border Control received two (02) Zambians removed from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after they had entered that country illegally.
We wish to encourage members of the public with information of an individual, business, or employer who may be aiding and abetting illegal immigrants to contact the Department of Immigration
