News / Africa
No mass deportations for illegal Zimbabweans in South Africa
01 Aug 2011 at 19:07hrs | Views
The adjudication of all applications from Zimbabweans wishing to legalise their stay in South Africa has been finalised, the South African home affairs department said on Monday.
Zimbabweans could now collect their permits before the lapse of a grace period this month, head of the Zimbabwe documentation project Jacob Mamabolo told journalists in Pretoria.
From September, any Zimbabweans in the country without proper documentation would be deported. There would however be no "mass deportations".
"Zimbabweans will be treated like any other nationality who are deported when found without proper documentation."
A total of 275 762 applications for work, study and business permits were received from undocumented Zimbabweans by the December 31 2010 deadline, after the government created a special dispensation for them.
The department however still had problems getting applicants to come to home affairs to have biometric details like fingerprints taken to finalise their applications.
Some applications were still waiting for travel documents to be issued by Zimbabwean authorities.
Once these processes were finalised, Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma would review the entire project to ensure that unsuccessful applicants had not been unfairly treated.
The department was aware that many Zimbabweans were concerned because they had not yet received their permits, McKay said.
"As we previously indicated, we concluded the adjudication of the application by 31 July 2011 and we will finalise all outstanding matters in August 2011. This will allow us sufficient time to dispatch all the required permits," he added.
Meanwhile, the department has been cracking down on illegal immigrants in recent weeks. McKay said the department's Inspectorate Unit, together with the Hawks, conducted a national sting operation called Full Force on 13 July.
"This was aimed at cracking down on the illegal facilitation of foreign nationals into South Africa using fraudulently acquired documents with the view of stemming the tide of illegal immigration into the country," he said.
The operation was conducted at the offices of Chinese IT company, ZTE, in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban.
After screening documents, eight Chinese nationals at the Johannesburg office were found to be in contravention of immigration laws and were voluntarily deported, McKay said.
In Cape Town, five Chinese nationals were arrested for failing to comply with conditions of their permits in terms of the Immigration Act, while the passports of eight Chinese nationals were seized for further investigations in Port Elizabeth.
In a separate operation carried out in Limpopo by the Inspectorate Unit, together with State Security and the Hawks at the weekend, three Pakistani nationals were arrested for being in the country illegally.
Zimbabweans could now collect their permits before the lapse of a grace period this month, head of the Zimbabwe documentation project Jacob Mamabolo told journalists in Pretoria.
From September, any Zimbabweans in the country without proper documentation would be deported. There would however be no "mass deportations".
"Zimbabweans will be treated like any other nationality who are deported when found without proper documentation."
A total of 275 762 applications for work, study and business permits were received from undocumented Zimbabweans by the December 31 2010 deadline, after the government created a special dispensation for them.
The department however still had problems getting applicants to come to home affairs to have biometric details like fingerprints taken to finalise their applications.
Some applications were still waiting for travel documents to be issued by Zimbabwean authorities.
Once these processes were finalised, Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma would review the entire project to ensure that unsuccessful applicants had not been unfairly treated.
The department was aware that many Zimbabweans were concerned because they had not yet received their permits, McKay said.
"As we previously indicated, we concluded the adjudication of the application by 31 July 2011 and we will finalise all outstanding matters in August 2011. This will allow us sufficient time to dispatch all the required permits," he added.
Meanwhile, the department has been cracking down on illegal immigrants in recent weeks. McKay said the department's Inspectorate Unit, together with the Hawks, conducted a national sting operation called Full Force on 13 July.
"This was aimed at cracking down on the illegal facilitation of foreign nationals into South Africa using fraudulently acquired documents with the view of stemming the tide of illegal immigration into the country," he said.
The operation was conducted at the offices of Chinese IT company, ZTE, in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban.
After screening documents, eight Chinese nationals at the Johannesburg office were found to be in contravention of immigration laws and were voluntarily deported, McKay said.
In Cape Town, five Chinese nationals were arrested for failing to comply with conditions of their permits in terms of the Immigration Act, while the passports of eight Chinese nationals were seized for further investigations in Port Elizabeth.
In a separate operation carried out in Limpopo by the Inspectorate Unit, together with State Security and the Hawks at the weekend, three Pakistani nationals were arrested for being in the country illegally.
Source - Sapa
