Government pockets more than E7m

M- The amount of money already pocketed by the Eswatini Government through processing the visas that were then cancelled is estimated at over E7 million.

Some foreign nationals who are relatives to those turned back have said that government should reimburse their relatives their monies which they paid for the visa processing.

But Chief Immigration Officer Simelane said they should forget ever being reimbursed by government.

will not Makhosini be intimidated because we are clear about our position as a department and as a ministry,” he said.

Simelane was responding to a question posed by Eswatini News, seeking to know if government was going to reimburse the foreign nationals of the monies they had paid for the cancelled visas.

This was after numerous foreign nationals whose relatives have been turned back at the KMIII International Airport were interviewed.

Some of these foreign nationals felt

He, nonetheless, invited them to come and engage the ministry over this issue.

“Whoever feels he has an issue pertaining to the Immigration Office must come to us or the leadership of the ministry. Whoever says he is not in the wrong must show up and we are more than ready to welcome them,” explained Simelane. Independent investigations by this publication revealed that there was no country that reimbursed funds paid for the issuance of visas which were later revoked.

that their relatives should be reimbursed their monies, while some felt the ministry should have at least heard both sides of the story or finished its internal investigation before revoking the visas.

Some of these foreign nationals made it clear that they were contemplating taking the matter to court. Simelane then responded and said: “Going to court is an individual’s decision and yes, we stand ready to defend our decision, that of government and by extension the country.”