Prisons refuse Ebola nations suspects

Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
THE Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services is refusing to incarcerate illegal immigrants suspected to have come from countries affected by Ebola citing fears of the disease spreading in jails. This came to light during an Ebola virus disease awareness meeting at the Matabeleland South Provincial Administrator’s boardroom in Gwanda Town.

The officer commanding police in Matabeleland South, Senior Assistant Commissioner Munyaradzi Goodwill Musariri, said police faced challenges when they arrested some foreign criminal suspects, especially those who enter the country illegally without documentation as the prison services showed reluctance to take custody of such suspects.

“Our concern as police is that when we arrest suspects that would be believed to have passed through the high risk areas, we then have a challenge with our colleagues from the ZPCS. When we handover such suspects to prisons, they (prisons) are reluctant to take them in,” he said.

The meeting heard that such suspects would end up being thrown from one department to another, ending up with nowhere to go as the responsible authority, ZPCS, tried to protect other prisoners.

Matabeleland region Prison Medical Officer Dr Taurai Rugara confirmed the difficulties ZPCS had in attending to situations of prohibited immigrants from affected areas.

He said they had no capacity to keep in their custody suspects believed to be from or passed through areas where Ebola cases were reported.
“We don’t have capacity to handle such situations. We have no protective clothing and no necessary measures to deal with such suspects. We are not in a capacity to entertain those suspects,” he said.

Dr Rugara said ZPCS would only be in a position to deal with such cases after getting some training on how to handle the suspects from the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

“We are not accepting them until we get training from the Ministry of Health. We are a closed society and we fear that if we make any mistake, we will end up having problems,” he said.

The meeting heard that the issue of language barrier also worsened the situation as it was difficult to effectively communicate with some of the prohibited immigrants.

The provincial environmental health officer Conart Mpofu said the Ministry of Health would chip in to demystify Ebola.
He said although the country was highly unlikely to record Ebola cases, the province was on alert for any eventualities with isolation facilities having been identified in various areas and health desks introduced at at the ports of entry.