News / National
Zim deportees subjected to inhuman treatment by SA authorities
13 Dec 2011 at 21:07hrs | Views
State media reports that scores of undocumented Zimbabweans are routinely subjected to inhuman treatment by South African authorities before they are deported back home through Beitbridge Border Post.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs heard this during a fact-finding visit in Beitbridge yesterday.
Giving oral evidence before the parliamentary committee, the assistant regional immigration manager in charge of Beitbridge Border Post, Mr Charles Gwede, said undocumented Zimbabweans in South Africa told them that they encountered harrowing experiences on being rounded up by South African officials. They are allegedly ill-treated while in detention awaiting deportation.
"We continue to receive several cases of our people being ill-treated by South African authorities soon after they are rounded up. We have received complaints from Zimbabweans who on being deported are not allowed to go back to their homes to collect their belongings. We also get reports from deportees that South African police tear off their travel documents while others claim that they had their permits unfairly cancelled by Home Affairs officials before they are then brought back to Zimbabwe," he said.
Mr Gwede said in one case, an undocumented Zimbabwean woman was rounded up at her workplace in Johannesburg and bundled into a police vehicle before she was taken to Lindela detention centre. She was not given an opportunity to go and collect her two-year-old baby she had left at home.
"When South Africa resumed the deportation of Zimbabweans in October, they assured us the exercise would be done in a transparent manner with special cases being given to the mentally ill and minors. It is, however, disturbing to note that such resolutions are not being implemented by our counterparts as we continue to receive numerous complaints of harassment of our people and children are not given a special type of deportation at all.
"We also urged the South African authorities to consider setting up another detention centre in Limpopo where a thorough vetting process would be conducted rather than just rounding up people and then start deporting them," he said.
South Africa has deported a total of 6 500 Zimbabweans through Beitbridge Border Post since it resumed the deportation exercise on 7 October. A majority of the deportees are males.
The first batch of 261 deportees was brought in from Lindela detention centre outside Johannesburg in four buses under the escort of SA Home Affairs officials. The largest number of deportees was recorded on 8 November when 589 undocumented Zimbabweans were brought back home.
The deportations marked the end of an amnesty for illegal Zimbabwean immigrants staying in South Africa that ran from 5 May 2009 to 31 July this year.
More than 275 000 applications from Zimbabweans wishing to regularise their stay in the neighbouring country have been processed while several others had theirs turned down and others are pending.
Mr Gwede said on arrival at Beitbridge Border Post, the deportees are taken to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reception and support centre where they are vetted by both local and South African immigration officials who would have accompanied them and the police. At the IOM reception and support centre, the deportees are offered overnight accommodation, medication, food and transport to proceed to their respective homes.
The officer commanding police in Beitbridge District, Chief Superintendent Lawrence Chinhengo said they have received 65 ex-convicts since the deportations.
"Since the deportations started we have also been getting ex-convicts being brought back together with other deportees. So far we have received 65 ex-convicts who had been released from South African
prisons after completing jail terms for various crimes and out of those, we later re-arrested 15 of them for robbing other border jumpers along the Limpopo River," he said.
Chief Supt Chinhengo said most of the stranded deportees were fuelling crime in the border town.
"Some of these border jumpers who are deported resort to crime and robbing people and this is a serious challenge that we are facing in Beitbridge," he said.
Chief Supt Chinhengo said a majority of the deportees shunned humanitarian assistance offered by IOM as they opt to cross back using undesignated entry points along the crocodile-infested Limpopo River.
The local district registrar, Mr Renias Muleya, also giving oral evidence before the committee, said most of the local children, particularly those staying in villages along the border, drop out from school and illegally cross into South Africa without documents.
He said there was a need for the Government to set up more registration centres in the district as well as increasing mobile registration programmes to cater for the local rural folk.
The chairperson of the parliamentary committee, Mr Paul Madzore, said they were on a tour to get first hand information on the situation on the ground on the issue of deportations.
"We are here to assess the situation and efforts made by border officials in handling the deportees as well as the challenges they are facing in dealing with the trend. We also wanted to have an appreciation and see for ourselves the challenges faced and we are saying there is need for South Africa and Zimbabwe to work together and engage each other as they continue to explore ways aimed at assisting the deportees," he said.
Mr Madzore said South African authorities should observe human rights when dealing with deportees and urged undocumented Zimbabweans to acquire proper travel documents to avoid humiliation.
The parliamentary team will today tour Plumtree Border Post on a similar exercise.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs heard this during a fact-finding visit in Beitbridge yesterday.
Giving oral evidence before the parliamentary committee, the assistant regional immigration manager in charge of Beitbridge Border Post, Mr Charles Gwede, said undocumented Zimbabweans in South Africa told them that they encountered harrowing experiences on being rounded up by South African officials. They are allegedly ill-treated while in detention awaiting deportation.
"We continue to receive several cases of our people being ill-treated by South African authorities soon after they are rounded up. We have received complaints from Zimbabweans who on being deported are not allowed to go back to their homes to collect their belongings. We also get reports from deportees that South African police tear off their travel documents while others claim that they had their permits unfairly cancelled by Home Affairs officials before they are then brought back to Zimbabwe," he said.
Mr Gwede said in one case, an undocumented Zimbabwean woman was rounded up at her workplace in Johannesburg and bundled into a police vehicle before she was taken to Lindela detention centre. She was not given an opportunity to go and collect her two-year-old baby she had left at home.
"When South Africa resumed the deportation of Zimbabweans in October, they assured us the exercise would be done in a transparent manner with special cases being given to the mentally ill and minors. It is, however, disturbing to note that such resolutions are not being implemented by our counterparts as we continue to receive numerous complaints of harassment of our people and children are not given a special type of deportation at all.
"We also urged the South African authorities to consider setting up another detention centre in Limpopo where a thorough vetting process would be conducted rather than just rounding up people and then start deporting them," he said.
South Africa has deported a total of 6 500 Zimbabweans through Beitbridge Border Post since it resumed the deportation exercise on 7 October. A majority of the deportees are males.
The first batch of 261 deportees was brought in from Lindela detention centre outside Johannesburg in four buses under the escort of SA Home Affairs officials. The largest number of deportees was recorded on 8 November when 589 undocumented Zimbabweans were brought back home.
The deportations marked the end of an amnesty for illegal Zimbabwean immigrants staying in South Africa that ran from 5 May 2009 to 31 July this year.
More than 275 000 applications from Zimbabweans wishing to regularise their stay in the neighbouring country have been processed while several others had theirs turned down and others are pending.
Mr Gwede said on arrival at Beitbridge Border Post, the deportees are taken to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reception and support centre where they are vetted by both local and South African immigration officials who would have accompanied them and the police. At the IOM reception and support centre, the deportees are offered overnight accommodation, medication, food and transport to proceed to their respective homes.
"Since the deportations started we have also been getting ex-convicts being brought back together with other deportees. So far we have received 65 ex-convicts who had been released from South African
prisons after completing jail terms for various crimes and out of those, we later re-arrested 15 of them for robbing other border jumpers along the Limpopo River," he said.
Chief Supt Chinhengo said most of the stranded deportees were fuelling crime in the border town.
"Some of these border jumpers who are deported resort to crime and robbing people and this is a serious challenge that we are facing in Beitbridge," he said.
Chief Supt Chinhengo said a majority of the deportees shunned humanitarian assistance offered by IOM as they opt to cross back using undesignated entry points along the crocodile-infested Limpopo River.
The local district registrar, Mr Renias Muleya, also giving oral evidence before the committee, said most of the local children, particularly those staying in villages along the border, drop out from school and illegally cross into South Africa without documents.
He said there was a need for the Government to set up more registration centres in the district as well as increasing mobile registration programmes to cater for the local rural folk.
The chairperson of the parliamentary committee, Mr Paul Madzore, said they were on a tour to get first hand information on the situation on the ground on the issue of deportations.
"We are here to assess the situation and efforts made by border officials in handling the deportees as well as the challenges they are facing in dealing with the trend. We also wanted to have an appreciation and see for ourselves the challenges faced and we are saying there is need for South Africa and Zimbabwe to work together and engage each other as they continue to explore ways aimed at assisting the deportees," he said.
Mr Madzore said South African authorities should observe human rights when dealing with deportees and urged undocumented Zimbabweans to acquire proper travel documents to avoid humiliation.
The parliamentary team will today tour Plumtree Border Post on a similar exercise.
Source - Chronicle
