The news that less than 500,000 Malawians out of a population of 13.1 million own passports may seem strange to others, but not to me. In Malawi, most people apply for passports when they see that there is a possibility that they will leave the country in the near future. In my case, I got my first passport at the age of 25 when I saw that I was on the verge of getting a scholarship to study in foreign country. Actually, I know a good number of people who can easily afford the MK8,000 passport application fee but they do not bother applying for it. The long waiting period, if you do not want to corrupt the Immigration officials, is also a major hindrance.
Nevertheless, it will be good if the number of passport holders can be increased. Therefore, the news, that the Immigration department is expected to open centers in Zomba, Chikwawa, Mulanje, Ntcheu, Nkhotakota, Mzimba and Karonga to bring the service closer to the people, is a welcome development. According to the department’s spokesperson, Pudensiana Makalamba, in two months’ time, they will also introduce a new computerized system with a capacity of printing 4, 000 passports. This will reduce problems such as double application.“With the current system it’s easy for a person to hold two passports as long as one changes a name,” said Makalamba.
Much less than 500,000 Malawians own passports
The fact that currently it is easy for a person to hold two passports implies that the number of Malawians who own passports is actually much less than 500,000. Here are a few observations to further confirm this:
- When some Malawians get deported from other countries e.g. UK, they usually change their names and home villages in order to apply for new passports. They do this so that the Immigration officials of those countries should not recognize them when they go back.
- Then there is a case where Malawians who have overstayed in South Africa deliberately trash their passports. Malawians are allowed to stay in South Africa as temporary residents for 30 days. Those who contravene this law are supposed to pay a huge fine (by Malawian standards), which is much more than the application fee for a new passport in Malawi. The South African Immigration officials at Beitbridge do not ask them to pay the fine immediately; they rather stamp their passports with a special stamp which shows that they overstayed in South Africa and are supposed to pay a fine. When the culprits arrive in Malawi, they change their names and home villages, pay the MK8,000 application fee and apply for a new passport. They also give the Immigration official some cash (kola apa sono = kora-pu-shoni) so that they should get their passports as fast as possible. The amount of money which they spend (application fee + corruption fee) is much less than the fine that they are supposed to pay on their next attempt to enter South Africa using the old legitimate passport. Besides that, the Immigration officials in Zimbabwe and Mozambique would also extract some more money from them for their sin of overstaying in South Africa.
From these observations, it is easy to see that there is a good number of Malawians who possess more than one passport. Therefore, the actual number of people who have passports is much less than the one from the records.
In a related development, I heard that citizens of other African countries are disguising themselves as Malawians in order to get Malawian passports. Out there, it is easier for Immigration officials to allow someone traveling on a Malawian passport into their countries. I remember in 2006 when I was passing through Schippol Airport, Holland, on my way to Vancouver, an African young man from a different country had a torrid time at the hands of the Dutch officials. They had to check a number of issues before allowing him to go and wait for his connecting flight. When citizens of such African countries want to go overseas, they rather choose to cross the borders and, by all means, corrupt everyone who stands in their way in order to get passports from “good” countries such as Malawi. They would pose as if their home village is in Nthalire, Chitipa; or Msakambewa, Dowa; or Chikuli, Blantyre. Some of them even go to the extent of marrying Malawian women in order to fully “malawianize” themselves. Once they achieve their goal(s), they leave these women.
As the Immigration Department installs a new machine for printing passports and decentralizes its service delivery, it is important for them start thinking of how they will tackle the aforementioned problems. The police also need to get involved. Fingerprint scanning technology would be one of the solutions.
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- Ashton Kutcher should just send the 10,000 nets to Africa without preconditions
- The Soko Fund for female students at a Malawian University
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25 users commented in " Much less than 500,000 Malawians own passports "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI dream of the day when people of a country will simply apply for passports to go out of their countries for pleasure or for business. If each country makes its own country safe and prosperous for its citizens, this can happen. Do you think that this dream is impractical?
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Clement Nyirenda says:
April 25th, 2009 at 10:32 am
@Nicole: That would be great. But I do not think it can happen.
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While I sense the frustrations in Clement, I want to agree with Nicole. Your dream can materialise. I truly believe that. I see it happening in England where I live at the moment. People travel more or less at their leisure to where ever they want, why not Malawians. It can happen. It can happen. It is a practical dream Nicole. It is.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
May 1st, 2009 at 7:36 pm
@Cryton: The folks in England are rich. They can easily afford to do that. In Africa, most people live on less than 1 dollar. They live from hand to mouth. They are always worried about what they will eat tomorrow. Traveling for leisure, even within the country (Nyika National Park, Nkopola Lodge), is something way beyond them.
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Thank you for the vote of confidence Cryton. Exactly what I had in mind. Britain today did not get like it is by wishful thinking. There was committed leadership which worked to make Britain the way it is. Alas, in most other countries, we do not have that kind of committed leadership. I think that this is what is frustrating Clement and a lot of others.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
May 1st, 2009 at 7:51 pm
@Nicole: Now you are talking. Most countries in Africa have rulers, not leaders. No wonder, most of them do not retire from presidency willingly. They sign off Africa’s vast resources to foreign firms at give away prices while the locals remain poor.
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It would seem that there is a business opportunity for passport making company in Malawi.
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I too dream of the day when people of a country will simply apply for passports to go out of their countries for pleasure or for business.
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I also agree that this could a reality one day, but I find that people’s culture has to change first. Some places like here, it is normal to not travel for pleasure and once that changes, then the passport numbers won’t change.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:11 am
@Jason: Where are you based?
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I personally hope that one day I will get the chance to visit Malawi, because I am fascinated by the lake.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:12 am
@James: You are more than welcome.
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I don’t find this strange. I live in the United States and I don’t have a passport. If you don’t plan on going anywhere, there’s no reason to have one.
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@Nicole: in this case we will find some countries where there is no one . everyone would live .
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It was the same case in Zimbabwe aswell, only towards the end of the nineties the majority of the people got passports. In fact going out of the country was never part of our life, until our dear President forced us to go out of the country.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:17 am
@Taka: So you are from Zim. I hear than sanity is coming back to the country. You may wish to return in the near future.
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I won’t be surprised if the ratio is worse in India. I applied for a passport too when I knew I wud be travelling abroad.
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Looks like your country is slowly making progress. Hopefully as the technology gets cheaper it will enable more and more citizens to travel outside the country with proper documentation.
I still remember going to the US Postoffice to apply for my 1st passport when I was 23 and I had the opportunity to work in Germany for 6 months. It was a wonderful experience!
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Interesting thing. I haven’t known that. In Russia you can’t live without passport. You can go to jail if you haven’t it.
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My mind just blew up to read all that because I can’t even imagine to have different passports with different identities. Is this lack of law or it is bribery? It is beyond my imagination. Clement, thanks for sharing all that. I think you are the only blog owner who is giving such information. Actually I get a lot of knowledge visiting your blog.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
May 8th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
@Allan Zyapa: Actually after they obtain the new passport, they do not use the old one. It is not lack of law. The law is there only that there is an identity crisis.
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its the same like in my country, not everybody having passport, only the one who will go abroad will apply for it.. its sad actually..
Sulumits Retsambew´s last blog post..Ten Thousand Thundering Sulumits Retsambew!
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Those with two passports manage to get through because there is no national I’d in Malawi. Most peple can not afford Kx,000 for a passport. Having a national I’d as most countries do would assist.
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I am a Malawian living in South Africa I don’t know if what I heard is true about all the Malawian passports are being renewed. I took my passport in 2005.
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When i have paid the fine at the boarder will i be allowed into south africa. Please advice because i intend to marry soon.
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