The Mozambican police has intensified its struggle against illegal immigration in the northern regions of Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa, according to the police.

Spokesperson for the police command in Nampula Inacio Dima was quoted by state radio as saying illegal immigration has reached to an alarming and critical proportions, due to vulnerability police border post controls.

He said there was time when all entries in the country were registered at border posts, but now "we are not doing it, due to the connivence of some of the policemen."

He said, "We are not registering the massive entry of illegal immigrants in the region, in Nampula province in particular."

The reduction in the number of illegal immigrants who enter Mozambique is mainly due to the work the police is doing at border posts in the past few months, said Dima.

Mozambique faced massive entry of immigrants from the Great Lakes, Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, among other nations in 2010 and last year.

Tight security has been intensified at the end of 2011 in those three provinces the immigrants use to enter Mozambique with the aim of reaching South Africa.

Between 1,000 and 1,500 immigrants used to enter Mozambique per day, thus causing a headache to the Mozambican government.

"We have stepped up measures, and we are going to step up further so that we don't face more massive entries of illegal immigrants," said Dima.

Dima also revealed that in the last four months of this year, 200 illegal immigrants were arrested and repatriated to their countries. They came from Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Nigeria, Lebanon and Mauritania, against more than 1,000 others who were detained and repatriated last year.

"Illegal immigration in the northern region has always been a worrying situation," said the police spokesman.