The Kasempa Magistrate Court on 3rd and 4th October, 2024, convicted and sentenced 33 male Tanzanians aged between 19 and 52 to a fine of K 1,500 each or three months simple imprisonment for engaging in employment without permits.
They were among the 38 suspected illegal immigrants nabbed on 22nd and 23rd September, 2024, in Kasempa District’s Dengwe area during a joint operation conducted with Police aimed at curbing illegal mining in the area.
Department of immigration Public Relations officer, Namati Nshinka, said that the immigrants had entered the country as ordinary visitors using emergency travel documents but were found engaging in illegal mining activities in the area.
“The other 5 individuals were released upon production of their Zambian National Registration Cards and all 33 have since paid their court fines and will soon be removed from the country,” said Mr. Nshinka in a statement issued to RCV News in Lusaka today.
Meanwhile, Mr. Nshinka has disclosed that the Chipata Magistrate Court on 1st October, 2024, convicted and sentenced a 27-year-old Malawian, Jeremiah Chikumbutso, to two years and six months imprisonment with hard labour without the option of a fine for concealing his national identity and uttering a false document.
He said that Chikumbutso, a medical student at Eden University, was apprehended on 15th September, 2024, at Mwami Border Control on a Lusaka-bound public service bus after failing to explain how he acquired his Zambian National Registration Card.
Mr. Nshinka said that investigations later revealed that the document had been forged.
By Angel Kasabo
