adminColumbus Mabika
Herald Reporter
Government should prioritise and ensure urgent installation of modern state of the art Information Communication Technology facilities at ports of entry to enable effective border patrols and surveillance, legislators said.
Parliamentary portfolio committee on Defence, Home Affairs and Security Services said this in a report on the state of service delivery at ports of entry presented in the National Assembly last week.
The committee said given the high volumes of movement at the ports, officials were not able to collectively identify criminals and prohibited immigrants without proper modern day technology leading to porosity and criminology.
The legislators noted that porous borders are bleeding the country millions of dollars in revenue through smuggling as well posing a national security threat due to illegal and unchecked movements along border lines.
More so, the report established that the border porosity gave way to illegal crossings of people whose Covid-19 status are unknown and is increasing the risk of further spreading of the virus in the country.
“Our security remains bleak, some of our borders have no physical barrier and are highly porous with a number of illegal crossing points along the border line, thus creating operational challenges. No wonder why at one time we had people from Ethiopia caught in Gwanda on foot because of the porousness of the border line,” reads part of the report.
”Government should prioritise and ensure installation of modern and state of the art ICT facilities before year end in order to enable effective border patrols and surveillance using drones to gather, on real-time basis, accurate data and intelligence about illicit activities occurring across border lines. This should also include availing resources for integrated capacitation programmes for immigrations, customs and security agents at border posts in the use of modern ICT and drones.”
The committee said country’s borders were very porous as evidenced by the proliferation of illegal exit and entry points saying the rise in illegal border crossing cases impacted negatively on the reputation of the Immigration Department in as much as it affected the entire nation in terms of security and loss of revenue.
The report said that securing the country’s borders was critical and there was urgent need to adequately and properly equip border security personnel for effective operation and patrol along the border lines.
“The departments are lagging in utilising modern technology such as drones, surveillance cameras, biometric cameras at clearance points, helicopters for effective operations, patrols and security surveillance at border posts. Criminals were therefore taking advantage of this to paralyse operational systems of the Department and thereby affecting service delivery at all levels,”
The legislators called on Government through relevant ministries to prioritise the establishment and operationalisation of an integrated border management system that involves the Immigration department, customs, security services and various other stakeholders.
The report further advocates for procurement of adequate patrol vehicles and improvement of road networks along t border lines in order to promote efficiency and effective monitoring of human movement.
“In many cases, officers on patrol rely on main roads since most areas remain inaccessible due to poor state of patrol roads. Officers at the stations bemoaned lack of commitment by responsible authorities in respect of the sorry state of the patrol roads. The roads are in such a dilapidated state and are open for porousness,” reads the report.
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