Travellers at Songwe May Face Tighter Patrols as Malawi Closes Check Gaps

Malawi's Parliamentary Committee on Health has warned that inspection procedures at Songwe Border are too weak to stop undeclared, falsified or prohibited goods from entering the country from Tanzania. The committee said checks at the crossing focus on the price and quality of consignments rather than confirming that their contents match the paperwork importers submit.

The concerns were raised on Tuesday, when committee members met state agencies at the border as part of an ongoing inquiry into the effects of drugs and falsified medicines in Malawi.

Key facts

• Where: Songwe Border, Malawi's crossing with Tanzania
• Who raised the concerns: the Parliamentary Committee on Health, led by Chairperson Antony Masamba
• Main gap: inspections focus on cost and quality, not pre-auditing of consignment contents
• Also flagged: uncharted border routes and no Pharmacy and Medicines Regulatory Authority (PMRA) officer at the crossing
• Planned responses: intelligence gathering through local communities, drones for aerial surveillance and police patrols in three shifts

What did inspectors find at Songwe Border?

Committee Chairperson Antony Masamba said the team saw no pre-auditing of goods, with inspectors concentrating only on cost and quality. He said this raises the question of whether what is inside consignments matches what importers declare in official documents.

Masamba also highlighted uncharted routes along the border, which he said could be used to smuggle medicines out of Malawi while public hospitals continue to face drug shortages.

A further weakness, he said, is the absence of a PMRA officer at the border. Masamba argued that a medicines regulator's presence would help verify the safety and quality of pharmaceutical products entering the country.

What are the authorities planning?

Kingsley Chibwana, station officer at the Malawi Revenue Authority's Songwe Border Station, said the engagement showed that state agencies need to strengthen border security against falsified and substandard medicines. He said authorities would gather more intelligence through local communities and speed up plans to use drones for aerial surveillance, noting that relying on ground patrols alone makes security operations predictable.

Chipezayani Makwati, station officer at the Songwe Border Police Unit, said police had identified some uncharted routes and deployed officers in three shifts. Police will intensify patrols and work with traditional leaders, group village headmen and community policing forums to find further illegal crossing points and gather intelligence.

Makwati said police had not registered cases of Malawian medicines being sold across the border at Songwe.

What does this mean for travellers?

The source describes planned changes to goods inspections, patrols and aerial surveillance at Songwe Border. No new document, visa or entry requirements for travellers crossing the border were announced, and no timetable was given for the planned measures beyond the accelerated introduction of drones.

Anyone crossing between Malawi and Tanzania at Songwe should be aware that police patrols and surveillance in the area are expected to increase.