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Zambia Immigration authorities have apprehended 45 suspected illegal immigrants during a cleanup operation conducted in Lusaka on June 18, 2024.
The operation, which targeted areas including Chaisa, SOS, Matero, Chilenje, Bauleni and Ibex Hill, resulted in the arrest of 41 Burundians, two Egyptians and two Rwandese nationals.
Department of Immigration Public Relations Officer, Namati Nshinka, confirmed the arrests in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Nshinka stated that those apprehended failed to produce documentary proof of legal immigration status and are currently detained pending further screening.
“The operation is part of ongoing enforcement measures aimed at ridding the city of illegal immigrants,” he said.
Additionally, Nshinka revealed that a similar operation was conducted on June 11, 2024, in Ndola’s Chipulukusu, Mitengo, Pamodzi and Kansenshi, where 15 Congolese nationals were apprehended.
These operations in Lusaka and Ndola brought the number of persons apprehended for various immigration offences between June 10 and June 17, 2024, to 297.
Nshinka also reported that the Mpika Immigration Office secured the conviction of a 36-year-old Burundian, Shane Harerimana, on June 11, 2024, for unlawful stay.
Harerimana was sentenced to pay a fine of K25,000 or face nine months of simple imprisonment.
He was nabbed on June 4, 2024, off a Lusaka-bound public service bus along the Nakonde-Lusaka road after failing to produce documentation to prove his legal immigration status at an immigration checkpoint.
On the same day, a 45-year-old Congolese national, Tshimanka Kwigomba, was apprehended in a similar manner and was also convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of K25,000 or nine months of simple imprisonment.
Nshinka highlighted that these court outcomes in Mpika brought the number of convictions secured by the Department of Immigration between June 10 and June 17, 2024, to 94.
In addition, between June 10 and June 17, 2024, the Department of Immigration removed 157 illegal immigrants of various nationalities from the country.
This included 22 Ethiopians who were removed on June 16, 2024, via Kenneth Kaunda International Airport after paying court fines for various immigration offences.
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