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Malawi intercepts vehicle carrying Somali nationals

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Saturday, April 18, 2009

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Malawi police have intercepted a vehicle carrying over 100 Somali nationals who fled from the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in the central district of Dowa — 50 km north of the capital Lilongwe – who were enroute to Mozambique, with South Africa as their final destination.

Police spokesperson Franklin Gausi said on Friday in Dedza, a district bordering Mozambique in central Malawi, that the Somalis, for their Thursday get-away, used a vehicle hired by the authorities to do other duties elsewhere.

The vehicle was driven by a DR Congolese named Lusiwa Mwangati, he said.

"The Congolese driver took advantage of the trip, thereby misusing it by illegally taking his friends who wanted to sneak out of the camp without authorisation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and government," he said.

He said the police arrested the driver and those travelling in it near the Mozambican border after the vehicle got stuck in the mud.

Gausi said the refugees are currently at the Dedza police station, waiting to be sent back to Dzaleka, while the driver is waiting to appear before the court to answer charges of human trafficking.

Source: APA, April 18, 2009