64 migrants found dead in truck that crossed from Malawi into Mozambique: 14 survivors
Sixty-four people have been found dead in a shipping container on the back of a lorry that that came from Malawi in Mozambique, officials said on Tuesday.
It is suspected that the dead, thought to be Ethiopian, suffocated. The migrants were on a well-known trafficking route to South Africa
Police and immigration authorities stopped the truck en route from Malawi in the early hours of the morning in the province of Tete, bordered by Malawi on one side and Zimbabwe on the other, migration authorities and the police said.
Some of the 14 survivors were hitting the container and screaming, reports the Portuguese newspaper Observador.
Amélia Direito, spokesperson for the National Migration Service in Tete, said the driver had not wanted to stop the vehicle when asked.
The survivors were now being held at an immigration facility, she added.
Many poor migrants travel via Mozambique on their way into South Africa, where they usually hope to find better work.
The driver of the truck told a local TV station that he had been approached in Malawi by an individual who offered him money to take the migrants into Mozambique.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the survivors were being treated for severe dehydration and exhaustion. They are currently at an immigration facility.
The Ethiopian foreign ministry said it had “confirmed through the Ethiopian embassy in South Africa that many Ethiopians travelling inside a vehicle from Malawi to Mozambique have died.” Addis Ababa said it was in working to establish the number of people dead and their identities.
Government spokesman Filmao Suaze said Mozambique, in conjunction with the Ethiopian embassy in the capital, Maputo, had launched an “investigation to bring the responsible to justice.”
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
These people were not being trafficked. They voluntarily boarded the track knowing well that it’s not safe. No case for the driver to answer. If it were abduction or kidnapping, that’s a different story.
These deaths could have been avoided RIP paths are different though feeling sad of them unfinished journey been seeing them arrested karonga via rumphi swollen exhausted dehydrated eish the saddest part of them ends diying due to lack of food and hurried like animals by prisoners at rumphi 3-4 of them a day in one tomb this is very true ask rumphi prison or hospital the end like this at Ru bridge graveyard I really fill sorry of the Ethiopians. RIP.
It is true that our borders are porous and riddled with corruption but wait a minute. These Ethiopians travelled all the way from their country to Malawi. How many borders did they pass through? While I do not want to condone any form of corruption, I don’t want us to portray our country as the most corrupt country!!!
Malawi home of corruption. Our boarders are too porous. Think about it Ethiopians go to South Africa via Malawi without any glitch someone is making a killing out of those cross boarder traveller’s. I HAVE ALWAYS ASKED THIS QUESTION. NO GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL FROM MALAWI IS CLEVER ENOUGH TO ANSWER IT. LET ME ASK IT AGAIN. WHY IS IT THAT PEOPLE THAT HAVE OVERSTAYED IN SOUTH AFRICA AFRICA HAVE TO BRIBE ZIMBABWE AND MOZAMBIQAN IMMIGRATION AUTHORITIES TO PASS THROUGH IN THEIR COUNTRIES ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE RETURNING HOME AND MALAWI GOVERNMENT DOES NOTHING ABOUT IT. THIS BUFFLES ME. CAN’T WE HAVE… Read more »
So they crossed Malawi Border popanda vuto. This is Malawi
Due to corruption by immigration officials in Malawi, the truck was able to cross the Malawi border into Mozambique. They all need to be arrested and face death sentences. You wonder how many times this has happened? La fourty lakwana.
You know nothing Sahara. Kodi immigration officers apanga clear ma thankala or any goods ?
Osamafulumila kupanga comment, think b4 you comment
@Hassan, if the immigration officials together with MRA don’t inspect what’s coming in or going out of the country, then what are they doing at the borders? I thought the government entrusted them to secure the borders? I know what I am talking about because I have traveled extensively and know what other borders do! The driver was supposed to have paperwork on what he was carrying and border officials were supposed to verify. Period. However, the way I know our officials, pretty much the driver just handed them money and they let him go without checking. Probably some of… Read more »
Something is not adding up ,the answer I got from this script is missing two figures if not three .