SISE, SERNIC and PRM investigate 10 foreigners detained in Nampula – report

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SISE, SERNIC and PRM investigate 10 foreigners detained in Nampula – report

7:49 CAT | 20 Jan 2023

Photo: O País

Ten foreign citizens are in custody in Nampula, after being found meeting in a residence at night without documentation. Some members of the group say they had previously left Cabo Delgado, raising further suspicions.

A multisectoral team made up of the National Migration Service (SENAMI), the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), the State Intelligence and Security Service (SISE) and the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) went to the residence in the Muatala neighbourhood on the outskirts of Nampula to arrest the ten foreigners.

The authorities became aware of the group regularly meeting in the house by way of an anonymous tip-off.

The operation on Wednesday night netted eight men of Ivorian nationality with applications for asylum in Mozambique pending, and two who without any documentation at all.

When the team arrived, some hid inside a wardrobe in one of the bedrooms and two used a set of stairs not easily apparent from the front to try and hide on the roof.

All identify themselves as Muslims and say that they gather in the house at night to say prayers, while maintaining that they do not know the owner of the house, nor his whereabouts.

Oddly, there are mosques nearby where the Muslim community regularly performs evening prayers.

“I opened the door and I said that this is not my house, the key is with the owner,” one of the immigrants said in broken Portuguese, an Ivorian who has been living in Mozambique for a few years, making a living selling second-hand clothes in Nampula.

Another told ‘O País’ that he used to sell second-hand clothes in Montepuez district in Cabo Delgado, but decided to head to Nampula to join his wife just a few days ago. “I moved to come and register to stay here in Nampula. I was in Montepuez selling ‘calamidade’. [I arrived] the day before yesterday”.

[The term ‘calamidade’ is popularly used in Mozambique to refer to second-hand clothing imported in bundles from abroad and widely sold in informal markets.]

The case is being treated primarily as one of illegal immigration, spokesperson for Migration in Nampula Enercia Nota says. “After the screening, [we found that] these citizens come from the province of Cabo Delgado and claim to have come to Nampula to register at INAR [the Institute for Refugee Support]. What raises doubts is that they gathered in a house at this time and as we are working to discourage those who are in an irregular situation. We are intensifying actions day and night.”

Because the information given to the authorities is contradictory, all cell phones were collected for investigation and the group was taken to the Provincial PRM Command, where a thorough investigation spearheaded by SISE, SERNIC and the PRM itself is being carried out.

Among matters of concern to the investigating authorities is the fact that it is not common for citizens of Ivory Coast to seek asylum in Mozambique.

In addition, ‘Operation Vulção 4’ is currently rolling out in Cabo Delgado, so the conflicting information presented by the detainees is being explored for clues relevant to the coming together of groups of people of diverse nationalities in the northern part of Cabo Delgado.

Source: O País