…Private Data is shipped to India, Raising Security and Legal Concerns..
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The much tauted Malawi Passport which Homeland Security Ministry went to town the past is being printed in India.
According to an exclusive investigation by The Investigator Magazine reveals that the Malawian government, under President Lazarus Chakwera’s administration, is illegally transferring the private biometric data of its citizens to a foreign company in India for passport printing.
This move, which circumvents local data protection laws and marks the first time Malawi has outsourced passport production, is raising serious questions about national security, data privacy, and the transparency of government procurement processes.
The company contracted for the job is Madras Security Printers (MSP), a firm with a controversial history concerning the security of sensitive documents.
The revelation comes amidst a months-long passport crisis that has left thousands of Malawians stranded and unable to travel.
A Trail of Deception
The government’s official narrative surrounding the passport shortage has been fraught with inconsistencies.
In March of last year, President Chakwera and his administration claimed a “cyber-attack” had compromised the national passport system, halting all local production.
However, sources within the government and the ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) suggest the disruption was a manufactured crisis, stemming from an internal power struggle over a lucrative printing contract.
The result has been a protracted period of national inconvenience and economic hardship for Malawians.
Most recently, Homeland Security Minister Ezekiel Ching’oma announced a “breakthrough,” presenting a batch of just 5,000 passports as proof that production had resumed. This handover, however, appears to be an attempt to manage public outrage days before elections.
The government’s claim that MSP would be printing 15,000 passports per day is directly contradicted by the limited number of passports that have been received in Malawi.
Illegal Data Transfer and Security Risks
The magazine has also uncovered that the data of Malawian citizens is being sent to India for the printing process.
This is a direct violation of Malawi’s newly enacted data protection laws, which mandate that sensitive personal data, especially that concerning national identity documents, must be processed and stored securely within the country’s borders.
The decision to entrust the personal information of millions of Malawians to a foreign entity with a questionable track record raises profound security concerns.
Biometric data—fingerprints, facial recognition, and other personal identifiers—is now in the hands of a private company operating under a different legal jurisdiction. This creates an unquantifiable risk of data misuse, theft, or sale on the black market.
The government has offered no explanation as to why a local solution was not pursued or why the national data protection laws were bypassed.
This lack of transparency suggests either a profound incompetence in handling sensitive national matters or a deliberate decision to bypass legal and security protocols.
Lack of Local Production
Our reporters visited key Immigration offices in Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu, and Mangochi. In all locations, there was no evidence of active passport printing. The only passports observed were a few samples being tested in Lilongwe, confirming that the entire production process has been moved offshore.
This raises the question of whether Malawi’s Immigration Department, and indeed the entire government, is now a mere distribution channel for a foreign company, rather than a sovereign body with the ability to manage its own national identification system.
With a crucial election less than two weeks away, the Chakwera administration’s handling of this crisis reflects many failures his administration is well known for.
The decision to send private data abroad violates national data law but also raises questions how safe is the data itself with Madras Security.
Already under President Chakwera and the MCP, the integrity of the Malawi passport has been questioned by other states including the USA.
Homeland and Security Ministry and Immigration Department are yet to dispute the claims.