Tuesday 3 August 2010

Crossing borders

During Easter holiday, I went to Malawi. The border crossing there was a bit confusing but painless. I took a direct bus from Lusaka to Lilongwe and the bus didn't need to stop at the border for a very long time. In fact, there was very little queuing, which surprised me.

On the way back, I took a minibus to Mchinji and a share taxi from there to the border. After crossing the border, I was in another share taxi waiting for it to fill up. There was a Zambian man there who had also been in the previous share taxi. I asked from him whether he knew where the two women from that taxi were. He smiled and said: “Oh they, they took the other way.”. I stared at him with my eyes wide open. After that, he explained that they didn't have passports, so they crossed the border somewhere in the bushes.

Later, I learned how difficult and expensive it is to get a passport. Even if you get a passport that is valid for five years, the government might change the passports forcing you to get a new before the old one has expired. And naturally, you need to pay again for the passport.

I was talking about that with a friend and she explained how she hasn't had a valid passport for some years now. That woke up my curiosity because I knew she had been to Tanzania recently. She had also taken the “other way”, and she told that it is really common. After that, I even read a story about it in a newspaper (which I can't find from the internet now).

Some weeks ago, I went to Zimbabwe for a long weekend. I took again a direct bus from Lusaka to Harare. This time, the border controls were tight. Zambian exit controls were together in the same, modern building with the Zimbabwean exit controls. The queues were long and it took almost two hours before the bus could continue. Everyone's passport was checked before re-entering the bus. This time, no-one could take the other route. I don't know is it because the river makes it easier to control the border, or does the other way exist somewhere else. At least, it isn't that simple in the Zimbabwean border.

The long queues in the Zimbabwean border made me realize how big part of the bus passengers must have crossed to Malawi illegally. Nobody seems to think it as a big deal, so the officials have a lot to do if they are planning to stop it.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Anu!
    I was really glad to find your blog! I am going to Lusaka in a few weeks :)
    What I read so far was really interesting and useful. I would have further questions especially on the daily life there... Would you mind contacting me by email? If I leave it there would you be able to erase it afterwards? to avoid spams ect...

    Thanks

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  2. Hi,

    I will gladly answer any questions if I can.
    I turned the comment moderation on, so new comments are not shown automatically anymore. You can just leave youe email address and I'll contact you, and I won't post that comment. Hope that's fine with you.

    Cheers,
    Anu

    ReplyDelete