Are the ex-pats safe in Tanzania?


By Deogratias Kishombo

Some of foreign experts in Tanzania are accusing the Tanzania immigration officials of using the mandatory working or residence permit to soliciting bribes, harassing and mistreating them, it has revealed.

In their report made to this reporter, they were concerned about allegations of corruption among the immigration officials in Morogoro REGION and request the relevant authorities to fully investigate allegations and take action accordingly.

The victim told this reporter that he would visit the Prevention and Combating Corruption Bureau (PCCB) for further steps against the officials who were involved in soliciting bribes.

It has been revealed that on 17th November 2008 the experts one from the United Kingdom and another from Zimbabwe had engaged in business discussion at the Acropol hotel in Morogoro region, just 300 kilometres from Dar es salaam.

But in the middle of discussion, two immigration officers had approached them. One of the officers had previously stopped a Zimbabwean another time and he knew he was Zimbabwean, and he had already seen his copy of working permit that time; however, he wished to see it again.

Unfortunately, he had accidentally left the copy of the permit, which he usually travels with, at home in Dar es Salaam , together with the original.

The Zimbabwean foreigner politely explained the situation and asked to be excused so he could continue with this important journey with his guest and later report to the relevant authorities. He also suggested they phone Immigration in Dar es Salaam to verify he was a legal resident.

Another alternative he suggested was that he could get a copy of the residence permit faxed to them. They said that only an original copy would suffice, despite the original being in Dar es Salaam and he was not having any convenient way of getting it to Morogoro.

They phoned three other immigration officers to come to the hotel. Then the man from Zimbabwe again explained to the other immigration officers the situation.

However, during a time of drama, the two experts also requested them to see their identification cards but they responded abruptly telling them were rude to request ID and that they had no right to request ID.

After strong insistence from a UK expert, two of them did show their IDs and the foreigner wrote the details down. The names on the IDs were Gerard Kihinga, ID number 00003297 and Aurelian Mhanje, ID number 00005315.

Also, a Zimbabwean guy heard them referred to as Gerard and Mhanje during the day and these are the names used in the rest of this report. They then took a Zimbabwean to Msamvu immigration office just three to four kilometres to downtown.

At Msamvu immigration department the official Gerard opened
a file and told the suspect that he must produce the original residence permit in Morogoro by 4pm or else be put in police custody and face a court hearing the next day.

The Zimbabwean phoned a man known as Fredrick, his business partner, who tried to arrange for the original permit to be picked up from his house in Dar es Salaam but unfortunately, there was no one with keys to the room where the permit was except his wife and a cleaner who was not contactable.

He then phoned his wife who was in a meeting at University Computing Centre, where she works, with CDC (US Government PEPFAR HIV/AIDS aid program) at the time and could not take his call.

When she saw his messages, she requested a fax number to send a copy of the residence permit to, as she had a copy of it in her office. He asked if a faxed copy would suffice and after lengthy discussion and pleading the immigration officers agreed.

However, Mhanje (officer) said that even if he got the fax and if the permit says place of work is Dar es Salaam then the expert is breaking the law by being in Morogoro when his place of work is supposed to be Dar es Salaam.

Gerard also threatened to get his permit cancelled. The first fax number given to the suspect was either not functional or not valid. His wife visited the university police station who inspected the copy of the permit and advised her to fax the copy of the permit to the immigration officials in Morogoro.

After following up to get the second fax number, which was
valid, the woman faxed the copy and received a confirmation status report at 3.29pm from the fax machine self-labelled immigrations Moro saying the fax had been received.

The suspect could hear the fax coming in on the fax machine nearby and saw the top of a permit coming through but the official Mhanje quickly grabbed the paper. He asked if that is his faxed permit.

An official quickly closed the door between the suspect and the fax machine. The immigration officers insisted they had not received the fax and said they were bringing him to the police station.

Again, the suspect phoned a man called Frank, a long-standing good friend of him who lives in Morogoro, to ask him to go to a secretarial shop, which receives faxes so they could resend the fax there and Frank could bring the fax to the officials.

His wife talked to the immigration officer Gerard via her husband’s phone and politely asked him to check their fax machine for the permit. He said “Are you giving order”. He abruptly cut off the phone. Mhanje, Gerard and another official took the Zimbabwean to the police station.

On the way, he asked if he could pay a fine instead of being imprisoned. They stopped at a bar and asked for the payment. The suspect said he could only make the payment in their office and that he would need a receipt.

They refused and continued to the police station. Frank went to a local fax shop and his wife faxed him a copy of the permit. Frank brought the copy of the permit to the police station and delivered it into the hands of the immigration official Mhanje in the presence of the police who also saw the faxed permit.

Despite now having a copy of the permit, the immigration officer Mhanje insisted to the police that they lock the Zimbabwean up in a cell.


The police held the foreigner’s phone while he was in the cell so he could not communicate. Mhanje then took Frank out of the police station to explain a way to get his frien out Outside, Mhanje and Gerard said that Frank should bring Tsh 200,000 in two hours. Frank said he only had Tsh 50,000.

They said that is not enough. Frank did not initially pay anything and his first priority was to bring his friend some food and water that he did. Meanwhile Elaine went to the Immigration department in Dar es Salaam and explained the situation.

Theywere sympathetic but said that as office hours were finished they could not communicate with the immigration officers in Morogoro. The man was locked in an extremely small cell together with 5 others and later 7 others, some being held as rape and robbery suspects.


In the next morning the woman went again to the immigration department in Dar es Salaam, and the deputy head of immigration there phoned the head of immigration in Morogoro, who denied any knowledge of a Tsh 200,000 fine or bail.

In the morning the suspect reported to the immigration
office in Msamvu. He asked for Frank¹s Tembo ATM card back which he received back. He then asked for the Tsh 200,000, which he had thought wasbail/security/bond to guarantee he would report.

Gerard and Mhanje denied that they had ever received Tsh 200,000. And finally he was released and travelled back to Dar es Salaam .
However, when this paper contacted to the Immigration head office in Dar es salaam, the deputy immigration commissioner, public relations Mr. Abdi Ijimbo confirmed the report but refuted the corruption report and mistreatment against the foreigner.

“Yes it is true that the foreigner was arrested in a hotel in Morogoro due to the fact that he did not carry his working and residence permit by that time but he was released without conditions,” he said

He said that it also not necessary for foreigners to carry their originals since the copies are enough for evidence. He blamed them on not to accept the copies provided by a Zimbabwean.

However, he say that there was no report yet that shows the officials engaged in bribes.

“I have no any information of bribes from the immigration department in Morogoro may be you can ask the police” he said.