Eswatini suspends five immigration officers amid illegal online gambling probe

Eswatini has suspended five immigration officers after allegations that irregular permit processing may have helped foreign nationals linked to a suspected illegal online gambling network enter or remain in the country, deepening scrutiny of the state’s role in one of the kingdom’s most high-profile crime investigations of recent weeks.

Eswatini’s Ministry of Home Affairs has suspended five immigration officials, including a deputy chief immigration officer, pending further investigations into the alleged unlawful processing and issuance of permits to more than 100 foreign nationals. Local reporting says the officers were suspended with pay for six months after appearing before the Civil Service Commission, while the ministry’s communications officer, Mlandvo Dlamini, confirmed that disciplinary proceedings remain ongoing and could extend beyond the five already named.

According to the allegations, some of the officers either processed permits without the required supporting documentation or allowed the approvals to go through without proper verification. Preliminary findings reportedly suggest that government system usernames belonging to certain officers were used to process and print work permits and other documents for foreign nationals who may not have met Eswatini’s legal immigration requirements. One officer is also accused of enabling continued system access for a previously suspended staff member, raising broader concerns about internal controls inside the permit-processing system.

The suspensions come against the backdrop of a widening crackdown on an alleged illegal online gambling and fraud syndicate involving foreign nationals. Earlier reporting from the Ministry of Home Affairs said at least 146 foreign nationals had been arrested as investigations expanded, with some suspects allegedly found in possession of national identity cards and other state documents issued under questionable circumstances. The ministry said it had launched a deeper review of officers’ historical document-processing activity as it tried to determine how long the suspected irregularities may have been taking place.

The criminal case itself has now moved into the court phase. The Mbabane Magistrate’s Court has scheduled trial dates in May and June 2026 for roughly 140 foreign nationals accused in connection with what local reporting describes as a large illegal gambling and money-laundering syndicate. The accused, drawn from several countries across Asia and Latin America, face allegations related not only to illegal gambling operations but also immigration and financial-crime offences, which has helped keep the case in the public spotlight.

The wider affair has already triggered debate beyond law enforcement circles. Senators recently called for stronger coordination across government departments after the foreign-linked gambling bust in Mbabane, reflecting concern that the case has exposed institutional gaps rather than just one criminal cell. That makes the immigration suspensions especially significant: they suggest the authorities are no longer treating the scandal only as a police matter, but as a broader governance and compliance failure that could reshape how cross-border gambling-related crime is handled in Eswatini.

For now, the allegations against the officers remain under investigation, and the reported permit irregularities should not be read as final proof of complicity. Even so, the suspensions mark one of the clearest signs yet that Eswatini’s illegal gambling probe is moving beyond the foreign suspects themselves and into the state systems that may have enabled the network to operate. If that line of inquiry continues, the case could become a much broader test of administrative accountability in the kingdom.