By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE:Jim O’Callaghan,the Irish Minister of Justice, Home Affairs and Immigration has banned emaSwati from traveling to Ireland without visas amid alleged fraudulent and illegal immigration to the European country.

This comes after Ireland introduced an asylum program for individuals facing persecution in their home countries including eSwatini.

But the process of traveling to Ireland was subsequently hijacked by a syndicate collecting monies amounting between two thousand five hundred United States(US) Dollars($2500.00) or fifty thousand Rands(R50,000.00) while some were collecting about five thousand US Dollars($5000.00) or one hundred thousand Rands(R100,000.00) to process or facilitate the traveling to Ireland.

Eswatini has been banned together with Lesotho and Nauru and, this decision was announced on Friday afternoon.

On another note, about two(2) weeks ago, alleged ten(10) members of the Swaziland Liberation Movement(SWALIMO) were detained in Taiwan while attempting to fly to Ireland via the Chinese Ireland.

The SWALIMO members were responding to a directive issued by SWALIMO President Mduduzi Magawugawu Simelane who visited Ireland for a “meet and greet” and subsequently urged emaSwati who want to reside in Ireland to fly to the Europe country via Taiwan, this was reportedly intercepted by the eSwatini Government and Taiwan started to monitor emaSwati who arrived in the Chinese Island on their way to Ireland.

It has been disclosed that, some emaSwati who travelled to Ireland under a cloud of controversy will now be investigated and face possible deportation.

SWALIMO leader Gift Mandlenkhosi Dlamini is among emaSwati who fled to Ireland under a cloud of controversy amid rape allegations and an investigation into the death of Bheka Magagula.

Dlamini made serious allegations saying he was aware who killed former warder Bheka Magagula but after being challenged to present the evidence to the South African police, he fled to Ireland saying his life was in danger and his matter was widely reported by this publication.

Now, the new travel restrictions imposed by the Irish Justice Minister suggest that, all individuals in possession of eSwatini passports and applying for asylum or refugee status will now be subjected to an intensive investigation to ascertain how and why they travelled to Ireland.

Furthermore, with effect from Monday(10th Monday 2025), there will be no more easy traveling to Ireland and a visa will now be required from eSwatini citizens.