Last Change:
05/26/2025
Immigration Act
Year: 1995
Type: Domestic law
Rights Category: Asylum, Freedom of movement
Description
The Immigration Act of Tanzania (Cap. 54, Revised Edition 2016) governs the entry, stay, and exit of non-citizens. It outlines requirements for visas, permits, and residence, and empowers immigration officers to enforce the law. The Act also provides for deportation, removal, and penalties for unlawful presence or entry.
Selected provisions
No person shall for gain or reward engage in any prescribed trade, business, profession or other occupation except in accordance with the terms of an appropriate permit issued in accordance with this Act.
The expression "prohibited immigrant" means any person who, if he seeks to enter Tanzania is, or if he has entered Tanzania was at the time of his entry, or is-
(a) a destitute person;
(b) mentally defective or a person suffering from mental disorder;
(c) a person-
(i) who refuses to submit to examination by a medical practitioner after having been required to do so under the provisions of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of section 5;
(ii) who is certified by a medical practitioner to be suffering from a contagious or infections disease which makes or which would make his presence in Tanzania dangerous to the public;
(d) a person who, not having received a free pardon, has been convicted in any country other than Tanzania of murder or any offence for which a sentence of imprisonment has been passed for any term and who, by reason of the circumstances connected therewith, is considered by the Minister to be an undesirable immigrant; but this provision shall not apply to offences which, in the opinion of the Minister, are of a political character not involving moral turpitude;
(e) a prostitute or a person who is living on or receiving, or who, prior to entering Tanzania, lived on or received, the proceeds of prostitution;
(f) a person whose entry into or continued presence in Tanzania is, in the opinion of the Minister of the Director, undesirable and is declared by the Minister or the Director to be a prohibited immigrant; except that every declaration of the Director under this paragraph shall be subject to confirmation by the Minister, whose decision shall be final;
(g) a person against whom there is in force a deportation order or any order for deportation or expulsion from Tanzania made under the provisions of any law for the time being in force;
(h) a person whose presence in or entry into Tanzania is unlawfully under any law for the time being in force;
(i) a dependent of a person to whom any of the preceding paragraphs of this definition apply;
(j) a person who is dealing in dangerous drugs.
Subject to subsection 2, the entry and presence in Tanzania of any prohibited immigrant shall be unlawful.
Subject to the provisions of this Act, any immigration officer or any police officer may prevent any prohibited immigrant from entering Tanzania and may, without warrant, arrest any prohibited immigrant or any person who he has reasonable cause to suspect of having entered Tanzania while being a prohibited immigrant otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
(i) unlawfully enters or is unlawfully present within Tanzania in contravention of the provisions of this Act;
Every person arrested or detained under the provisions of this Act shall be informed, as soon as reasonably practicable in a language which he understands, of the reason for his arrest, search or detention.
Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1), no person shall be entitled to be informed as to the grounds on which a decision has been made relating to his being declared a prohibited immigrant or to an order for his deportation.