The government of Malawi has begun stripping refugees and asylum seekers of their citizenship if they earned their status illegally, according to the authorities.
According to officials, the initiative is intended to flush out offenders from other nations, including suspects in the genocide in Rwanda. However, many claim that the program is too open-ended and will trap genuine migrants.
Zikhale Ng’oma, Malawi’s minister of homeland security, said during a Monday news conference that Rwanda had asked Malawi to assist in finding 55 offenders who were living there and were wanted for a variety of offenses.
Ng’oma claimed that the fugitives were difficult to track down since they might have switched their identities and were going by Malawian names.
He said that the government is cancelling fraudulently obtained passports and citizenships as part of the manhunt.
“We want to strengthen security and make sure that anyone who obtains a passport outside of the norm faces having their passport confiscated. We would also rescind citizenship from anyone who obtained it without following the proper processes, added Ng’oma.
Uladi Mussa, the former minister of homeland security, was given a six-year prison term by Malawi’s High Court in 2020 for giving Burundians and Rwandans false passports and citizenships.
Ng’oma claimed that some of the 55 suspects sought by Rwanda are wanted in relation to the more than 2,000 fatalities that occurred during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
A suspect in the Rwandese genocide, Fulgence Kayishema, was detained by the South African government last month. Kayishema was using a Malawian passport and names, according to investigations.
We think that some people are utilizing phony identities in Malawi since we were able to obtain a sample of what was happening in South Africa with relation to our passports, Ng’oma added. As a result, as I speak, the Malawian government is in discussions with Burundi and Rwanda on those individuals that it wants to repatriate.
Ng’oma claimed that the government is also looking for further offenders who, according to the UN organization for refugees, may have obtained official documents in Malawi.
“And the UNHCR department recently sent us a letter stating that we must return 522 asylum applicants to their home countries because they are linked to criminal activity. And those individuals are residing in our villages, he claimed.
Ng’oma asserted that the existence of fugitives in Malawi poses a security risk and that many of them are thought to be maintaining weapons and ammunition.
He gave the Dzaleka refugee camp explosion in December, which left one refugee from Burundi dead and five others hurt at a market, as an illustration.
According to Ng’oma, 396 foreigners had their visas canceled overall by Malawi.
Rights organizations have cautioned that a scheme intended for criminals could harm genuine refugees.
Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation in Malawi, Michael Kayiyatsa, said that the manner the government is carrying out this exercise “targets everyone, indiscriminately.” “And our concern is that vulnerable groups that have nothing to do with what the government is alleging are being victimized, including children, women, people with disabilities, you know.”
Although there may be criminal elements among certain migrants and asylum seekers, according to Kayiyatsa, the Malawian government needs to develop more effective means to go after the criminals.
“There was a better way to do it,” he continued, “if the idea was to target those warlords.” “Countries like South Africa are looking for potential genocide perpetrators, but they are not victimizing everyone in the process. It is intelligence-based and targeted.
The Malawian government has meantime ordered anyone in possession of weapons or ammunition unlawfully to turn them over to law enforcement or face arrest.
