South Africa deports 28 000 Zimbabweans

SOUTH Africa has deported more than 28 000 Zimbabweans through Beitbridge Border Post during the first half of the year, a sharp increase compared to 16 780 during the same period last year.

The neighbouring country's Home Affairs Department resumed the deportation of undocumented Zimbabweans on 7 October 2011 during which the first group of 261 deportees was brought in from Johannesburg.

In an interview yesterday, the assistant regional immigration manager-in-charge of Beitbridge Border Post, Mr Charles Gwede said between January and June, they handled 28 315 deportees.

"We handled 28 315 deportees between January and June and those brought home were mostly undocumented seasonal farm workers who were rounded up in farms in Limpopo province.

"It looks like South African police in conjunction with Home Affairs department have of late been mainly targeting farms in their routine operations since most of our people without work permits are illegally hired by farmers," he said.

Mr Gwede said on average they received between 200 and 300 deportees daily and some of them would have been brought in from Lindela detention centre outside Johannesburg.

According to immigration figures most of those who were deported from the neighbouring country were males.

The largest number of deportations on a single day was recorded on 5 December 2011 when 672 Zimbabweans were rounded up in Limpopo and Gauteng provinces.

Police said several border jumpers were taking advantage of the drop in water levels in Limpopo River to illegally cross the border through undesignated entry points.

Mr Gwede urged people to desist from using undesignated entry points as they risked being attacked by criminals along the border.

"We continue to warn people against irregular migration, as they risk prosecution and being attacked by robbers who operate in bushy areas along the river. Several border jumpers have fallen prey to these organised crime syndicates," he said.

Recently, Zimbabwean and South African police arrested 45 suspects during a joint operation along the Limpopo River.

South Africa suspended the deportation of undocumented Zimbabweans in May 2009 and later introduced a special dispensation during which Zimbabweans were given an opportunity to regularise their stay in South Africa by applying for work, business and study permits.

The end of the documentation process culminated in the deportations of illegal Zimbabwean immigrants in that country marking the end of an amnesty for the illegal immigrants.

This was after the country had introduced a moratorium on the deportation of Zimbabweans granting them a special dispensation for one year so that they could regularise their stay.

On arrival in the country, the returnees are received by the immigration authorities at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Beitbridge Reception and Support Centre (BRSC) who vet them to ascertain whether they are bona fide Zimbabweans.

Soon after that process, they are then further vetted by police before being taken to the IOM which offers them overnight accommodation, medication, food and transport to proceed to their respective homes.

The IOM BRSC has the capacity to accommodate 600 people at any given time.

However, some of the deportees turn down any form of assistance from the IOM and those who opt to go home using their own means are released.

Most of them resort to crossing back to South Africa illegally through undesignated entry points along the crocodile infested Limpopo.