IRINGA: Immigration Department in Iringa Region collaboration with the police once again has intercepted 83 Ethiopian nationals for illegal entry, who were in sealed Scania truck traveling from Dar es Salaam to South Africa via Malawi and Zambia, looking greener pasture.
The past few days immigration Department in Iringa arrested four Ethiopian nationals bring the number of illegal migrants bringing number to 87 since the start of crackdown on illegal migrants in the region.
According Iringa Regional Immigration Senior Assistant Commissioner of Immigration Hope Kawawa, said the illegal migrants were arrested at Mbigili area in Kilolo District, Iringa region yesterday.
He said the migrants were arrested by immigration officers in conjunction with the police force so they continued to question and bring them to court on Monday. They were found in a Scania Truck with registration number T 903 AKH belonging to Gabriel Mwakyambiki of Tukuyu in Mbeya Region.
Kawawa said that Iringa region is not a place for immigrants to pass easily but they will continue to arrest them and bring them to law enforcement agencies all in the region and are at work for twenty-four hours.
"Please tell the agents (human traffickers) that transport these migrants to Iringa, is not a safe place to pass those people because we are paying attention 24 hours,” he said.
He said that following the inflow of illegal immigrant Iringa has called on some people to report when they hear some people are not Tanzanians and people who do not know to security agencies so that they can be examined.
He said that the illegal migrants entered the country were not inspected by immigration officials by checking what they had entered and what items were as a weapon that makes security to be in jeopardy.
However, Iringa Regional Immigration Senior Assistant Commissioner of Immigration Hope Kawawa thanked the good Samaritans who tipped them on the presence such people in region and asked general public to continue cooperation the department.
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at least 37 million Ethiopians continue to wallow in poverty and according to recent world bank statistics, the poorest in Ethiopia have become even poorer in the sense that, the high food prices that improves income for many farmers, also makes buying food more challenging for the poorest especially those in the rural areas.
In other words, although more farmers are making good incomes from their farm produce, many people in Ethiopia today are unable to afford basic necessities like food due to the high prices.
Since Ethiopia's economy depends mostly on agriculture (about 45 to 50% of GDP), natural causes such as drought and sometimes unpredictable flooding put the entire economy of Ethiopia in a very bad shape and leave many starving.
Illiteracy is another major reason why Ethiopia wallows in poverty. Ethiopian leaders today do not pay much attention to education. Ethiopia has a lliteracy rate of 49% with the female literacy rate hovering around 41%.
This implies only about 41% of the total female population of Ethiopia above age 15 can read and write which is very bad compared to most other African countries.
Due to extreme poverty and hunger, most children of school going age are out of school and most are forced into child marriage, child labor, child trafficking and most recently, child prostitution.
Most children in Ethiopia are forced into petty trading especially along the major streets of big cities such as Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia with a population of about 5 million people), Dire Dawa, Adama or Nazret, Gondar, Dese or Dessie, Mek'ele, Jimma and Bahir Dar.
Coffee which is very critical to the Ethiopian economy (with exports around $400 million dollars a year) sometimes meet low prices on the international market which puts the entire Ethiopian economy in a very shaky state.
Environmental issues such as water pollution (as a result of agricultural and industrial runoffs, etc.), land degradation which often leads to desertification, poor climatic conditions (including severe droughts), etc. continue to threaten several lives in Ethiopia today.
Ethiopia's HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate hovers around 1.1%. In 2014, more than 730,000 people were officially living with HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia with about 20,000 HIV/AIDS deaths recorded in 2016. Besides the deadly HIV/AIDS, malaria, bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, typhoid fever, hepatitis A, dengue fever, rabies, etc. continue to threaten several lives in Ethiopia today.
Poor governance, rampant corruption, lawlessness, etc. remain some of the top issues facing Ethiopia today. Just like in most other African countries, political figures in Ethiopia today are very corrupt with little or no experience at all.
The poor government policies, corruption, political instability, etc., unfortunately drive investors away. (BY FRIDAY SIMBAYA)
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