Immigration officers threaten strike over promotions

Some disgruntled officers in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services (Dics) have threatened to strike if they are not promoted.

The officers claim that they haven’t been promoted since 2015, and accuse some Ministry of Homeland Security officials of bias towards police and prisons, arguing that police and prison officials who they claim have been promoted several times in that period.

In a communication issued on Wednesday, addressed to Dics director general Hannings Mlotha, the officers have asked management to treat their grievance as a matter of urgency, and that their objective is to ensure that all educated, experienced, young and old officers benefit.

They also question the deployment, which they describe as “without strategy”, of Immigration officers to various establishments and asked the department to also focus on securing consumables for passport processing as a matter of urgency.

Reads the disgruntled officers’ letter, in part: “Failure to do so [promotion] will result in stoppage of revenue collection and any other action deemed necessary to redeem the department.

“The ministry seems to have an agenda against us. We will fix this department at all costs. We believe we have been reasonable.”

The concerned officers claim that Minister of Homeland Security Richard Chimwendo-Banda promised to promote them by July 1 2021, but wonder why this has not happened to date.

When contacted yesterday, Chimwendo-Banda was elusive on the alleged promise to promote Immigration officers by July 1 2021.

“I can’t comment on the institution’s internal management matters to the general public. I am a minister responsible for Immigration, if they want they will talk to me,” he said.

In a separate interview, Immigration spokesperson Wellington Chiponde claimed that the department has not officially received the letter from the concerned officers.

He said the department is an institution with high levels of professionalism, discipline and integrity, and that there are procedures that are followed when misunderstandings arise.

An inside source, who sought anonymity for fear of repprisals, claimed that the petition was delivered to Mlotha on Wednesday. Efforts to confirm the same with Mlotha proved futile as he did not pick up his phone on several attempts.