Raid at Mundo's Last Night to Find Foreigners Who Are Illegally in Mozambique

I've heard this from a couple different sources, and it seems legitimate.

If you are a foreigner living in Mozambique, be sure to carry your *original* passport and visa/dire documents with you at all times. Technically a notarized copy is sufficient, but given what has been happening lately, I no longer believe this is sufficient.

Also, if you are in an irregular situation in Mozambique, beware that crackdowns are happening on all fronts it seems, from surprise workplace inspections to last night's restaurant raid. If you don't have your papers in order, it looks increasingly unlikely that you will be able to "dar um jeito" and get by...

Here is the report from Notícias, the original in Portuguese and a rough Google translation in English below:

RUSGA CRIA MAL ESTAR

Maputo, Quarta-Feira, 1 de Abril de 2009:: Notícias

Entretanto, uma rusga inesperada efectuada por funcionários da Direcção Nacional de Migração contra estrangeiros em situação ilegal no país, gerou um mal-estar no seio dos utentes do Restaurante Mundo´s, na cidade de Maputo, por volta das 20 horas de ontem.

Num caso que deixou perplexos tanto os proprietários e funcionários do restaurante, que não se recordam de nenhuma visita do género desde que foi criado o sítio, os agentes da Migração invadiram inesperadamente aquela casa de pasto e exigiram que os presentes – em plenas refeições – se colocassem em dois lados, as mulheres de um e os homens do outro e que cada um devia exibir os respectivos documentos de identidade.

Xavier Mulhovo, chefe da equipa da Migração, disse à nossa Reportagem que se “trata de uma rusga rotineira ao abrigo da Lei 5/93 que visa procurar estrangeiros em situação ilegal”. Acrescentou que é uma acção legislada, que, no entanto, não tem sido efectuada por falta de meios, desconhecendo daí a última vez em que foi efectuada.

Segundo a nossa fonte, a referida lei dá a acesso incondicional ao pessoal da Migração à qualquer espaço público a verificação dos documentos dos presentes, dispensando a apresentação de credenciais para o efeito.

Entretanto, a entrada repentina daquele pessoal, acompanhado de agentes da Polícia armados de metralhadoras AK47 deixou alguns utentes do espaço, principalmente nacionais, à beira de um ataque de nervos na medida que a saída ficou condiciona à apresentação de documentos.


Raid Creates Malaise

Maputo, Wednesday, April 1, 2009:: Noticias

However, an unexpected raid by officials of the National Directorate of Migration against illegal aliens in the country, generated a malaise among the users of the Mundo's Restaurant in the city of Maputo, around 20 hours yesterday.

In a case that has puzzled both the owners and employees of the restaurant, who cannnot recall of any kind of visit of this type since the site was created, the Migration agents unexpectedly invaded that house of grass and demanded that those present - in the middle of their meals - place themselves on two sides, women on one and men on the other, and that each should show their respective identity documents.

Xavier Mulhovo, the team leader of Migration, said in our Report that "this amounts to a routine raid under Law 5 / 93 which aims to look at illegal aliens." He added that it is a legislated action, however, that has not occurred for lack of means, not stating when the last time one was made. According to our source, the law gives unconditional access to the staff of Migration to any public area for the verification of these documents, with presentation of credentials for the purpose.

However, the sudden entry of these staff, accompanied by police officers armed with AK47 machine guns left some users of space, mainly nationals, on the verge of an attack of nerves as they exited the condition was the presentation of documents.

Update: I was just at the US embassy and they confirmed the raid last night did actually happen, and said this type of thing may become more commonplace. Also, they said the police detained several foreigners who were at Mundo's without proper id.