Mozambique: Immigration service must be rid of corruption – AIM report

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Mozambique: Immigration service must be rid of corruption – AIM report

8:13 CAT | 22 Mar 2018

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Mozambican Interior Minister Basilio Monteiro has demanded that corruption be rooted out of the country’s immigration service (SENAMI).

Speaking at the first ever Coordinating Council of SENAMI, on Wednesday in the northern city of Nampula, Monteiro said the meeting should debate the strong and the weak points of the service, in the defence of the interests of the Mozambican state.

Cited in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, Monteiro said “We want a SENAMI that is free of corruption. That depends on the commitment of each one of you present here today, the spirit of team work and internal cohesion”.

The Minister recalled that SENAMI was set up in 2014 (replacing the old National Directorate of Immigration) in order to improve the country’s security by controlling the entry, presence and departure of foreign citizens, and to combat illegal migration and the crimes associated with it.

In the current regional and international context of forced and voluntary migratory flows, SENAMI, Monteiro added, must use its skills to combat the forgery of documents, and such cross-border crimes as drug trafficking, and the illicit trafficking in wild life.

The General Director of SENAMI, Arsenia Massingue, recognised the existence of corruption among SENAMI staff. There were officials, she admitted, who told citizens “your document isn’t ready yet”, or “come back tomorrow”, or “my superior hasn’t signed the document yet”, or the more blatant “if you give me a soft drink (the standard euphemism for a bribe), I can speed things up”, in order to extort money.

She urged SENAMI staff to place the legitimate concerns of citizens at the centre of their attentions, by providing an efficient service that responds to requests in good time. The SENAMI staff must serve citizens better, she stressed, and avoid illicit demands for money.

There is a certain logic in holding the meeting in Nampula, since this province poses major challenges to SENAMI. The authorities know of 31,136 foreign nationals in the province, 12,418 of whom have resident status, while the other 18,718 are refugees, mostly from the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa. The refugees are mostly living in the Maratane refugee centre, 25 kilometres south of Nampula city.