Egypt dares Immigration

Egyptian Ambassador Maher El-Adawy has urged Immigration Department to become independent and generate its own resources instead of depending on government and donors for its sustainability.

The Ambassador said this on Tuesday when he toured the Immigration Headquarters in Blantyre as part of his tour to cement his government’s relations with both private and public departments.

“I am impressed that with limited resources and overload, the department is efficient and has a faster passport process. However, it is time the department started to think of generating its own resources to efficiently run its activities.

“If we can come up with resource-generation measures and support them with perseverance and hard work, the department can be different,” said El-Adawy.

He advised the department to consider influencing government to allow it to raise the fees for the services it provides and pocket the additional sum to support its activities.

Chief immigration officer Masauko Medi said his office is already discussing with government to be disintegrated and be independent. He said they are optimistic that if they are independent like Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) and Directorate of Road Traffic Safety Services (DRTSS), their operations can improve.

“We will be more efficient if we stop depending on the Treasury. Our dream is to run the department as a business because it does not speak well to be bankrupt when we are able to generate more revenue,” said Medi.