Mozambique: Interior Ministry abandons trave permit scheme – AIM report

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Mozambique: Interior Ministry abandons trave permit scheme – AIM report

5:06 CAT | 21 Aug 2020

The Mozambican Ministry of the Interior has abandoned a scheme to oblige anybody who planned to enter or leave Mozambique by air to apply for authorisation from the Ministry.

The idea of such a permit was floated immediately after Mozambique Airlines (LAM) announced that it would resume flights between Maputo and Lisbon later this month. At a press conference on 15 August, the spokesperson for the National Immigration Service (SENAMI), Leidita Mahanja, said “We would like to inform all Mozambicans and foreigners that, if they intend to travel outside the country for urgent matters or return, a request for entry or exit should be addressed to His Excellency the Minister of the Interior”.

This imposition was dressed up as part of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, but was in obvious contradiction to the government’s declared intention to revive tourism as soon as possible.

LAM tried to soften the blow by promising that it would arrange the authorisations by submitting the passenger list for each of its flights to the Ministry.

But not only did the Ministry’s demand that it vet each and every passenger imply a huge burden of unnecessary paperwork – it was also clearly unconstitutional. The anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), pointed out that the Ministry’s travel permit scheme was a “gross violation” of the right to freedom of movement enshrined in the Mozambican constitution, and “a disguised return” to the “Guia de Marcha” (a generalised, and much resented, form of travel permit that was in force under the one-party state, and was abolished by the Constitution of 1990).

Ministério do Interior Está a Violar a Constituição ao Condicionar o Direito de Livre Circulação Para o Exterior à Obtenção de Uma Espécie de “Guia de Marcha”.
Leia o texto na íntegra:https://t.co/xvc1KtWGYA

— CIP-Mozambique (@CIPMoz) August 19, 2020

Article 55 of the Constitution could scarcely be clearer: it states “all citizens are free to travel inside the national territory and to go abroad”. This right has not been suspended under the current state of emergency.

By Thursday the Ministry had changed its mind, and dropped the scheme. A Ministry statement declared that Mozambican citizens need no authorisation to enter or leave the country, and foreigners need no authorisation to leave.

The entry requirements for foreigners are a valid entry visa or residence permit (known as a DIRE). In other words, the requirements are now exactly the same as they were before the Covid-19 pandemic.