Six immigration officers arrested over visa stickers

The Immigration Department in Blantyre on Thursday arrested six officers over a Malawi visa sticker booklet which went missing at Chileka International Airport last month.

The department said the booklet contained 60 visa stickers which are issued and put in the travelling document of foreigners as an authority to enter Malawi.

Immigration Department national spokesperson Joseph Chauwa confirmed the arrest of the six on Thursday but refused to give names of the suspects, saying making such information public would jeopardise on-going investigations into the matter.

“I can confirm that some officers have been arrested. A visa sticker’s book went missing at Chileka Airport a month ago. We have been conducting investigations together with the police to establish how the booklet went missing, and so far, the investigations are leading us to the officers who have been arrested,” Chauwa said.

However, the publicist said the four are yet to be charged.

The arrest of the four comes at a time when the department is on the spotlight due to reports of corruption.

On April 30 this year, an immigration officer at Kamuzu International Airport was arrested for aiding two Pakistani to acquire a fake temporary employment permit (TEP).

Weekend Nation recently also exposed an immigration and police syndicate that allowed illicit trafficking of Bangladeshi immigrants in and out of Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) after a spate of ill-fated deals.

Immigration and police officials are said to be among the people that are aiding influx of illegal immigrants.

According to 2016 Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index, Malawi Police Service (MPS) and its Immigration Department are some of the most corrupt government institutions in the country. n