HOME Affairs Minister Lameck Mangani has warned immigration officers against engaging in corrupt activities because that tarnishes the name of the Immigration Department.

Mr Mangani, who yesterday visited the immigration department headquarters in Lusaka said that he had been receiving reports on some immigration officers who were engaged in vices.

He said that he had received several corruption allegations some of which were exaggerated while others had some elements of truth.

"If you engage in corruption you will cut your careers short when you are caught. You should not take advantage of an individual because of your position," he said.

Mr Mangani said that there were some bad elements in the department saying they should not distort the image of the department but be on the look out because there were a lot of foreign nationals in the country.

He said that some people were using Zambia as a transit point for human trafficking adding that it was good that the immigration intelligence unit had recently arrested such culprits.

The minister also told immigration officers that they should ensure accountability with the money that they raised because he had received several complaints from the auditor general although there had been an improvement this year.

He said that this year the department had performed well as it had raised K61 billion from the targeted K84 billion.

Mr Mangani said that the immigration department was critical in running national affairs because it handled foreign nationals who came to Zambia.

He said they were the first contact for people who entered the country and that they should ensure that foreign nationals had proper documents whether they were visiting or working in the country.

The minister said that Government was aware that the department had a lot of challenges especially with staffing levels of 437 from the required 850.

He said that as a result some borders could not operate on a 24 hour basis because they only had one officer and the fact that the department was congested with clients showed that it was understaffed.

He however, said that 120 recruits were currently being trained while the Government was considering changing the establishment and improving working conditions for the officers.

And immigration spokesperson Mulako Mbangweta said that the department has arrested a Nigerian national who was deported from Thailand because he had a Zambian passport.

Ms Mbangweta said that the Nigerian national had a Zambian passport number ZC 030683 under the name Jason Banda when in actual fact he was Sam Kalu.

She said that the Nigerian national who was arrested at the Lusaka International Airport claimed to have bought the passport at US$1,000 from a Zambian footballer in Thailand.