Malawi passport holder Stevens Prince Thengo has filed a K300 million compensation for the in convenience he experienced and cost s incurred after he was denied entry in Israel because his passport was not readable.
In a letter dated February 3 2025 filed by his lawyer William Chiwaya, he is seeking compensation for loss of funds, humiliation, mental anguish and false imprisonment.
“It is from the foregoing that we have instructions and we hereby demand the sum of K300 000 000 in compensation,” reads the letter in part.
The letter is addressed to the director general of Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services and copied to Attorney
General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda. It states that if the demands are not met after 90 days they will start legal proceedings.
Thengo sai d he was issued the passport on June 1 2024 and in December he travelled to Zambia from where he connected to Israel.
He said upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel on December 25 2024, he was denied entry because his passport failed to be read by the scanner.
Further reads the demand letter: “On the evening of the same day, our client was embarrassingly put on a plane to Lusaka, Zambia. Upon arrival in Zambia, our client was arrested for producing a fake passport and eventually spent two nights in custody.”
Thengo was released on December 28 2024 following the intervention of the Malawi Consulate officials in Zambia and his
lawyers.
In an interview yesterday, Chiwaya said the Attorney General was served with the letter on February 4 2025 but they were yet to get feedback.
The Attorney General was yet to respond to our questionnaire by press time yesterday.
There have been several instances of Ma lawians facing cha l lenges when using recently obtained passports.
Between June and July last year, Norway refused to grant visas to about 16 Malawians on the basis that chips on their newly obtained passports failed to read during processing.
In an interview yesterday, securi ty analyst Sheriff Kaisi said this could mean that Malawi is producing low standard t ravel l ing documents.
“Consequent l y, t h e Malawi passport will lose credibility, and what this means is that Malawians who may be unfortunate holding such document are subjected to torture, arrest and humiliation in foreign nations they travel to,” he said.
Immigration Department spokesperson Wellington Chiponde asked for more time w h en cont a c ted yesterday, but he told The Nation in July last year that the passports it issues are embedded wi th unique security features that comply with international standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
In April last year, Malawi engaged local information and communications technology f irm E-Tech Systems as the new passport system supplier, taking over from Techno Brain Global FZE of the United Arab Emirates.
