The LRF Newsletter

n 18- year old male, Abdul Ngoyi Sobulayi, has appealed to the Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) to intervene in his detention at Central prison where he has been detained for more than one year by the immigration department for allegedly mistaking him to be a Prohibited Immigrant (PI).

The detainee, who was arrested as a juvenile late last year by the Immigration Department, claims to be Zambian as his mother is Zambian from Eastern Province.

Ngoyi, in a letter he gave Pastor Peter Mulling who usually goes to the prison to conduct prayers, was addressed to the Chairman of the Legal Resources Foundation (LRF)complained that he was detained even though his mother was Zambian from Eastern Province.

"I have been detained for unknown reasons for more than one year now, it is very disheartening to be treated like a foreigner in your own country. I am being treated like a murderer when I have not committed any such kind of offence,"read part of the letter.

"I have suffered mental torture everyday and the conditions of prisons are not humane," he added.

Ngoyi, who was a grade eleven pupil at Makeni Islamic secondary school in Lusaka until his arrest, stated that he was born at Kanyama Clinic and his mother was Cathleen Soya Manse who was from Petauke District Mwanjabantu Village of Chief Mwanjabantu in Eastern Province.

Central Prisons in Lusaka has been packed by PIs whom the Immigration department has not deported to their respective countries due to limited resources in the department.

The department has reported an increase in PIs in recent months and confirmed the failure to decongest the prisons by deporting some immigrants due to lack of resources.

When reached for comment, Immigration Department public relations officer Danny Lungu, said his office has not been furnished with information regarding the detention of the Ngoyi