Immigration Department arrests, releases suspect

The Immigration Department last week arrested and later released Noor Muhamad, a Malawian of Indian origin, who is being suspected of having a Malawian and a British passport.

Muhamad was detained at Chileka International Airport in Blantyre after the department’s system indicated that he also holds a British passport. The system further indicated that the suspect once used the British passport at a check-point to enter the country.

Immigration Department national spokesperson Joseph Chauwa confirmed the development, saying the suspect was released since officers failed to recover the British passport.

Section Six of the Malawi Citizenship Act forbids “a person of full age and capacity” to be a citizen of another country.

Reads the Section in part: “A citizen of Malawi, being a person of full age and capacity, who is also to his own knowledge a citizen of any other country, shall be liable to deprivation of citizenship of Malawi in accordance with Section 24.”

In addition, Section 24 gives the Minister of Home Affairs the power to revoke one’s citizenship.”