BLANTYRE (Mareeg.com) ---A court in northern Malawi has freed 200 Somalis and Ethiopians, jailed for four months after they pleaded guilty for illegal entry into the country seeking refugee or asylum status, according to a court ruling.
"It was not easy to establish whether they were refugees or not," high court judge Dingiswayo Madise, said in his ruling in Mzuzu.
"Since there is doubt, we must exercise the same in their favour, set aside the sentence of fines and impose a sentence which must result in their immediate release from prison," Madise added.
He warned Malawian authorities that before trying a foreign national who pleads refugee status or asylum, "the court must satisfy itself that the offender is one who does not fall within international humanitarian or refugee law."
He said it was "trite law that some parts of Ethiopia face massive starvation and that there is total public disorder in Somalia."
Among the 200, it was not clear how many are Somalis or Ethiopians.
The judge said although it was not easy to distinguish between refugees or asylum seekers from "economic migrants", the 200 were not screened, making it "not easy to establish whether they were refugees or not."
He ordered police, immigration and justice authorities in Malawi to put systems that will "screen false claimants who masquerade as asylum seekers."
The 200, who served half of their four-month jail term after they failed to pay fines ranging from $33 to $54, were convicted by a court in the northern district of Nkhata Bay after they pleaded guilty for entering the country without valid documents.
In groups of seven, they entered Malawi from Tanzania in hired boats across the Lake Malawi – Africa’s third largest - and were found hiding in a forest by bemused villagers in Nkhata Bay. Police arrested them and charged them for illegal entry.
Their release comes after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) asked the high court to review the case, which took three days to conclude.
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