Malawians living abroad who have been critical of President Bingu Mutharikas administration risk imminent arrest upon their arrival to Malawi to process new passports starting November 1, a top government official at the State House has warned. The government official speaking on anonymity condition told Nyasa Times in capital Lilongwe that there are several people the government of Malawi is targeting for arrest once they reach the Malawian soil.
Malawi government according to Immigration department spokesperson Pudensiana Makalamba will withdraw the current passports and issue new ones and this would enable the immigration department to capture fingerprints through an automated process.
This automatically means all Malawians in diaspora would have to head back to their mother land to apply for new document and taken new fingerprints.
Apart from stopping crooked people from abusing the traveling document, government is also targeting all those seen to be dissidents so that once they come back to Malawi they should be arrested for various charges ranging from treason to sedition said the source.
He added: By ordering the home affairs department to issue new passports President Mutharika knows that it is now the best time for him to corner down all his critics in diaspora because no matter what they would still have to travel back to apply for the new computerized system.
Two years ago President Mutharikas government went on a hunt for academician Tom Likambale who came into the country to cheer his sick mother.
Likambale has been fierce critic of Mutharika in the last six years the president has been in power and when authorities got wind of the news that he was in the country, police acting on instructions from above searched for the most wanted man only to find out that he had found refuge at a Canadian embassy.
There is a list of people which Mutharika is targeting including those publishing negative articles on the internet that expose abuses of his administration. He wants to get rid of them allmy warning is that to those who have been seen to be critical let them stay wherever they are staying, otherwise coming home would be suicidal as they would be persecuted here, warned the source.
Meanwhile, some commentators have warned the government against using the new computerized system to trap all its opponents living abroad saying, its typically reminiscent of those dark days of the one party regime.
A Blantyre-based political think tank said during the days of Kamuzu Banda the country witnessed mysterious deaths of citizens either in the country or in diaspora.
Thats what Kamuzu used to do no matter where you stayed as long as you crossed his path just know that your days are numbered.I hope thats not what our beloved President is contemplating to do, he said.
Another respondent lecturing at the University of Malawi Chancellor College added that while it could be true that the government is targeting dissidents, another group of people that needs to tread carefully is that of those staying illegally abroad.
There are several people that are holders of Malawian passport yet in actual sense they are not Malawians, with the new system its now a dead end to such. I dont think they would be able to come back to Malawi to apply for new passports. The good thing about the new document (no matter who the government is targeting) is that they will be held by legitimate Malawians and there will be no cases of a person holding more than one passport, commented the Chanco lecturer.
Meanwhile, many Malawians in diaspora talked to at random have expressed mixed reactions to the issue. Some have commended the government but said the move is long overdue while others said it is another plan by Mutharika who steps down in 2014, to stamp his authority on opponents who fled to other country for fear of being arrested by the present regime.
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