Police interrogate Sirari immigration officer.

Tanzania Police.

Police in Tarime/Rorya Special Zone are still interrogating an immigration officer attached to Sirari border point along with an associate accused of involvement in trafficking illegal Ethiopian immigrants into the country from neighbouring Kenya.

 

Police here say they were extensively and intensively investigating the incident that was first reported in some section of the media two days ago and has recently tarnished the image of the immigration department in the District and seen to have dampened the states initiatives to curb illegal immigration across the Tanzania-Kenya border.

 

The acting zonal RPC Sweetbert Njewike on Thursday confirmed to the Guardian  that they were holding Emmanuel Kyampamba 35, an immigration officer along with the van driver that was used to ferry in the immigrants identified as Mtundi Marwa 28.

 

He said preliminary findings revealed that the officer was caught red-handed aboard the van with registration numbers T 299 DCY trafficking the 12 Ethiopian immigrants past the Tanzania-Kenya border without valid travel documents towards Tarime town.

 

He said police were acting on a  tip-off from law abiding citizens that some immigration officers attached to the Sirari post were colluding with criminals to ferry in illegal citizens from the war-tone countries of Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

 

''The police set up a trap that managed the apprehension of the suspects in broad daylight when they had already crossed the main border check-point heading to a nearby Tarime town some 18 kilometers away where the officer did not decisively account for his actions''

 

He explained that when the law enforcers inquired from the suspected human trafficking immigration officer the legitimacy of the transport, he did not have comprehensive satisfying response.

 

The RPC stressed that they were still investigating the possibility of involvement of other officers in the docket following intelligence information from the force's organs that some unscrupulous civil servants were colluding with criminals to ferry in illegal immigrants after being offered money.

 

He said all suspects will be taken to court once the investigation was completed in the near future although he did not rule out possible further arrests following revelations from the law enforcement body that  there were still other culprits walking freely to collude with criminals in and outside the immigration department.

 

The incident comes in the wake of continued security precautions and alerts from East African states concerning possible terrorists attack by the Islamic militants in Somalia, Al-Shabaab, who are killing innocent civilians.

 

A cross section of Tarime residents interviewed by this paper concerning the incident called for an urgent reshuffle of the District immigration department to coincide with the existing country's efforts to combat terrorism perpetuated by foreigners mainly from Somalia.

 

''It is very dangerous to have a civil servant who is jeopardising the security of the state for their selfish gains, we think he was not alone, the government must act with adequate urgency to make a reshuffle in the immigration department,'' said one Matiko Ghati, a Sirari resident.