Ten Buses Carrying Malawians Arrive From SA

Ten buses carrying 598 Malawian returnees arrived in the country last night through the Mwanza border post.

Mwanza border public relations officer Inspector Pasqually Zulu said the group include 261 men and 258 women while others are minors who are all coming from South Africa.

Inspector Zulu said this cohort is second batch of buses in this month of April alone totaling 1.149 returnees as on the 1st April the formation received a total of 551 returnees in which 255 were men, 216 women while minors were 80.

He said these Malawian returnees have fled from South Africa due various economic challenges in the wake of Covid-19 global health crisis.

The publicist further added that upon arrival at the formation, the returnees underwent all health protocols and border checks before being released to their respective destinations on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, Zulu has said that various stakeholders and some returnees are commending timely clearance of buses carrying Malawian returnees from South Africa and the exercise has been described as a success.

The development comes in following the feedback on the timely clearance of the returnees including covid-19 re-tests by health personnel at Mwanza border despite its ever busy schedule being one of the biggest borders in Malawi.

“Joint multi sectoral approach between key border agencies, partners including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have been the catalysts behind this success story,” said Zulu.

Clearance exercise of self-repatriated Malawian returnees at Mwanza border started on May 23rd, 2020 and so far the formation has cleared over 30, 000 Malawian returnees.