It has been days that Malawians planning to travel to USA for business, school or pleasure have been uncertain of their USA visa approvals following the informal communication from the government of USA that Malawi has been ‘yellow listed’ and given 60 days to fix its passport security measure or face further restrictions.
The United States government placed Malawi on its ‘yellow list’ of countries that need thoroughly security check and may face travel restrictions due to passport security concerns. This inclusion on the list is said to be a result of concerns over the country’s ability to share traveler information, weak passport security measures and citizen ship laws that may enable individual from banned countries to obtain citizenship.
- What it wrong with Malawi immigration department?
Since last year, the department of immigration and citizenship services have been experiencing several challenges led to consecutive halts of passport printing services across the country.
Last year, the government of Malawi suspended the issuing of passports following a cyber-attack on the immigration service’s computer network. it was revealed that the hackers were even demanding for a ransom to restore the computer network of the immigration department.
Amidst this development, the president of Malawi gave the department three weeks within which it was to provide a temporary solution and resume the passport issuing while waiting to regain control of the system. Furthermore, he promised that long-term solution with additional security safeguards would be developed (of which we doubt that they were developed…).
These kinds of suspensions in the operations of the immigration department are not news to Malawians. In 2023, the government halted giving out new documents after running out of passport booklets and this problem was said to be fueled by short of foreign currency.
While, frustrated Malawians faulted the government for the continued backlog of applications amid allegations of corruption. This year, Malawians seeking passport danced to the same tune as the immigration department halted passport printing across the country from January to February.
The immigration department through their spokesperson cited that the issue was due to technical challenges with the system as other sources pointed out that the problem arose with the governments’ decision to terminate the contract with the current passport printing service provider. However, on-site inspection by the Malawi Daily Times team revealed that amidst the pausing of the passport issuing, the department was only issuing passports to ’emergency applicants’.
- Why did USA really yellow list Malawi?
Back in 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission( SEC) filed charges against a UK based Nigerian Businessman by the name Dozy Mmobuosi for attempting to defraud investors by inflating his business financial performance figures. In 2024, he was charged in US with securities fraud, making false fillings with SEC and conspiracy charges.
In his home country, this business man was also charged for similar offences but the issue was resolved in arbitration.
This individual is the core reason and sits at the center of controversy.
In 2023, after the cyclone freddy disaster in Malawi, Dozy Mmobuosi come to Malawi where he was welcomed by former president Bakili Muluzi and was also seen with former president Joyce Banda. During his visit, he pledged to construct 1000 houses for cyclone freddy affected households and also aid them with foods and money to restore their businesses.
This was followed by a meeting with the current Malawi’s president facilitated by Muluzi. It is said that 2 hours later the businessman was issued a diplomatic passport but the ministry of homeland affairs denied to be aware of this and that the command must have come from the first citizen himself.
Since then, Mmobuosi has been operating his business under the Malawian flag.
This is why the US government has retaliated by yellow listing Malawi because of issuing a Diplomatic passport to a person charged of fraud and other countless charges in the US. It questioned Malawi’s respect for US visa restrictions and demands a corrective action of retracting the passport and any associations with Mmobuosi within 60 days or face serious restrictions which can afffect the countries international relations especially with the USA.
All in All, we hope the government will take corrective action to address this issue for the sake of all Malawians who can be affected if the restrictions gets any further as it is with UK who removed Malawi from countries that don’t require VISA to visit/travel to UK because the government was aiding non Malawians (especially Nigerians) to gain citizenship and passports so they can travel VISA free to UK where they were indulging in criminal acts.