We had an interesting discussion with the customs lady at Tanga port about the correct process with the Transire.

Seemingly you must be issued a Transire by Customs when moving from any major port to any other major port in Tanzania. This is the case whether you have cargo or not.

The major ports that came up in our discussion were Tanga, Pemba, Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Mafia and Mtwara, but it was not an exhaustive discussion and I’m sure Kilwa would also require it, and perhaps others too.

Visit Customs to surrender your form

Upon arrival at the destination port, you must visit Customs and surrender your Transire form. If you don’t do this, you will be subject to a fine. You must visit Customs again upon departure to get your next form.

There was no charge in Tanga, although we did end up paying 5,000 TZS (and getting a receipt) in Zanzibar. Not sure if that was corruption or just a genuinely different set of rules in Zanzibar.

You can ask for your Transire to have your original port, and your departure port, and list all ports in between. But you still need to visit Customs in those “in between” ports on arrival and departure, so there’s not much benefit.

A Customs Process

This is entirely a Customs process, and has nothing to do with Port Authority, Immigration or Health. If officials from those departments say you don’t need a Transire, they are incorrect and misinformed.

If you ask Immigration, Port Authority or Health during your check in process if you’re finished (as we did on arrival in Tanga), and they neglect to tell you that you also need to see Customs re Transire, it’s still your fault, and you’re liable to be fined ($US 25).

We were let off with our fine in Tanga (the lady there was lovely), but she was genuinely shocked to discover that there was any ambiguity about the process and was grateful when I said we’d spread the word.

Peter Bernard

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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of Noonsite.com or World Cruising Club.

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