The Malawian government says it has begun stripping refugees and asylum seekers of the country’s citizenship.

The authorities claimed that the action was to identify people who may be criminals from nearby nations, including suspects in the Rwandan genocide.

Zikhale Ng’oma, Malawi’s minister of homeland security, said during a Monday news conference that Rwanda had asked his government to assist in finding 55 offenders living in Malawi wanted for committing crimes, the VOA reported.

Mr Ng’oma further claimed that the fugitives were difficult to track down since they might have switched their identities and were going by Malawian names.

“Having managed to get one sample of what is happening in South Africa in regard to our passports, we believe that some people are using false identities in Malawi,” Mr Ng’oma explained. “As such, as I am talking, Malawi government, we are in talks with Burundi and Rwanda in regard to those people we want to repatriate.”