Minting money in migrant deals

 Stories of illegal immigrants dying in transit maybe chilling, but transporting them, especially Ethiopians, is a lucrative business involving officers from security agencies, making it difficult to curb the syndicate.

Following the discovery of a mass grave in Mtangatanga Forest in Mzimba District in October last year, we embarked on an investigation to trace the routes used and demystify the illegal business.

Our findings, based on observation, review of reports and interviews with communities, suspects in the Mzimba mass grave case, brokers, serving and retired police as well as former minister of Homeland Security, point to a high-level collusion between civilians and personnel in security agencies, especially the police.

Malawi, according to our investigations, is not the intended destination of the

 illegal immigrants, but South Africa.

A former Inspector General of Police and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Malawi office described the syndicate as “lucrative business, which lures many into it, but is difficult to crackdown”.

In a written response, former Inspector General of Police Lot Dzonzi described transportation of illegal immigrants as a lucrative business in a transnational network which involved, among others, politicians, security personnel (police, immigration and military), business people and traditional leaders. He, however, said it may not be easy to know the actual names, “because the syndicate is shrouded in top secrecy”.

Dzonzi said: “Those involved in these criminal activities are usually committed to top secrecy. For example, if you catch one, they will not tell you the others in the network for two reasons; fear of death at the hands of the others and for purposes of preserving the network, or the protection of their families and loved ones.”

The former IG explained that due methods used and high circulation of money, human trafficking, like corruption, is very complex for law enforcement to work in.

“It is the reason that you often hear the allegations of police or immigration officers being involved at top level, but rarely would you be told names. This makes the policing of such crime syndicates difficult to detect and deal with. But it would also be foolhardy for anyone to say security personnel are not involved in these syndicates,” he said.

A latest report from IOM confirms that a lot of money changes hands in this business and states that for each Ethiopian immigrant to reach South Africa, they pay not less than $5 000 (about K5 123 281.52) to brokers in Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi, which are common transit routes.

The report released in May last year titled Migrating in Search for Southern Dream: The Experience of Ethiopian Migrants Moving in the Southern Route shows that the motivation for this dangerous migration is a search for greener

 pastures. Reads the report in part: “Money to pay for the trip mostly came from family (both at destination and at home, often as a result of selling assets (37 percent). Twenty-three percent of individuals were able to co-finance migration with their own funds, and only three percent reported a self-sustained migration. Around 20 percent of individuals had to borrow money to finance their migration and 14 percent were supported by friends.”

IOM Chief of Mission to Malawi Nomagugu Ncube said many are lured into the illegal business because of its profitability. She said the trade flourishes due to long porous borders and collusion involving frontline officials.

Said Ncube: “It is quite a lucrative business and our research shows that each migrant pays at least $5 000 to get to South Africa.”

Money changes hands

Our findings show that each illegal immigrant travelling from Karonga to Lilongwe pays about $1 000 (about K1 024 656.30) to facilitators of the movement. The brokers arrange for transport and are responsible for ‘clearing’ the way to ensure that the ‘consignment’ (immigrants) is delivered without problems.

On a strict condition of anonymity, former brokers in Karonga and Nkhata Bay, popular transit points, took us through the process.

They said their main job is to facilitate movement to Lilongwe, after Tanzanian brokers hand the immigrants over to Malawi police where they are known as Katundu (luggage) or makatoni (cartons): coded names to disguise meaning to others.

“Each one pays an agreed amount. These days the fee is around $1 000. We use this money to pay for transport and, also, bribe our way through. There are Ethiopians in Lilongwe and Dzaleka who are in control of this whole arrangement and have connections at the top (police) but in case we meet police or immigration [officers] in roadblocks, we pay them on the spot,” explained a Karonga-based broker.

At Tukombo in Nkhata Bay, we met another broker who has been transporting the illegal immigrants from Karonga to Nkhata Bay on boats. He confirmed that police are heavily involved, saying that is why it is easy to transport them to Lilongwe.

Both brokers claimed to have been arrested on two and three occasions respectively, for trafficking Ethiopians, but their cases did not see the light of the day because top police officers were involved.

In our interviews, names of suspects of the syndicate in police were mentioned, but we could not independently authenticate them.

In separate interviews, police and immigration officers in Karonga, Mzimba and Lilongwe, corroborated that transporting illegal immigrants is made easier because the high command in police and immigration is involved.

An immigration officer in Karonga claimed that junior police and immigration officers manning roadblocks cannot stop the illegal business because top officials are involved.

In Mzimba, a police officer claimed that sometimes they are asked to conduct a special operation, which has led to interception of illegal immigrants, but described this as a cover-up for the police to be seen to be doing something about the problem.

An officer at Lumbadzi Police Station said the scheme about illegal immigrants is widespread and involves the airports, where other illegal immigrants come into the country in a similar fashion. The officer claimed that even Immigration officers are involved.

With junior officers feeling helpless to crack down on the syndicate for fear of reprisals, Dzonzi said it defeats the purpose of the fight, adding that there is need to develop effective whistle-blowing strategies that would protect informants.

“In this way, we would give confidence to these operatives to come up with names of top officials that are involved in these syndicates,” he said. n

To be continued in tomorrow’s issue of Nation on Sunday where

you will read about how local comunities facilitate illegal immigrants and how the illegal immigrants have been dying in their ill-fated trips.