Blantyre, Malawi – Police in the Malawi capital, Lilongwe, Sunday arrested 42 Ethiopians as they tried to flee to South Africa. Immigration Department spokesman Elack Banda said the refugees had fled the UNHCR-Malawi government-run Dzaleka Refugee Camp in the central district of Dowa.
‘We got a tip from the public that a truck was carrying a lot of strange people,’ he said.
Banda said the truck was traced to the city’s populous Kawale suburb and upon inspection the truck was found to contain sacks of unprocessed Malawi tobacco destined for South Africa with the Ethiopians hiding in between the sacks.
‘When we interrogated them, they claimed they were told there was some work for them in South Africa,’ he said.
Banda said the Malawian driver of the truck has also been arrested and that the refugees will temporarily be kept at the Maula Prison ‘for safe-keeping’.
He said the Ethiopians are likely to be sent back to the Dzaleka refugee camp.