I congratulate the government for this move.
Mogadishu (RBC) Somali government on Monday deported two foreigners- a Ugandan national and Ghanian national from Mogadishu International Airport after they were alleged to have entered into the country illegally following orders from the Ministry of Information of the Federal Government of Somalia, deputy minister confirms.
The deportation came after the National Security and Intelligence Agency arrested the two men from their hotel in Mogadishu on Sunday and transferred to the immigration department for deportation.
The country’s Deputy Minister of Information Abdullahi Olad Roble on Saturday said that the ministry ordered an investigation on illegal foreigners claiming to be journalists who have entered Mogadishu days ago and started to engage with the local journalists without official authorization from the ministry.
The two foreigners were sneaked into the country claiming to be journalists and trainers working for the IFEX, a Canada-based global network of free expression.
“We have got sources from the journalists and the National Union of Somali Journalists that foreigners claiming to be journalists were engaging to the local journalists that is why we have ordered the investigation. They were arrested and will be deported back soon,” Mr Abdullahi Olad Roble said.
On Friday, during a press conference in Mogadishu the National Union of Somali Journalists [NUSOJ] which is the nationwide union complained over unauthorized use of the union’s name by illegal individuals and called the ministry of information and the National Security Agency to act within the country’s law.
Following the calls from NUSOJ, National Security Agency stooped an event supposed to be held in City Palace Hotel in Mogadishu with the name of NUSOJ and IFEX, which the security officials and the deputy minister described as “illegal representation of the name of NUSOJ”.
Meanwhile, NUSOJ Secretary General Mohamed Ibrahim welcomed the move by the Ministry of Information and the NISA to deport the foreigners and to stop the event organized by illegal representatives.
