MBEKI MUST STOP THIS ABUSE AND DEPORTATION OF ZIM REFUGEES!!!

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From Ntando Ncube

 

JOHANNESBURG June 21, 2007 – South Africa should seriously consider issuing Zimbabweans fleeing from political persecution in their own country with a special document recognized by the police in order to avoid unnecessary deportation back home.

The Consortium for Refugees and Migration in South Africa (CRMSA) on Tuesday also called on the South African government to stop deporting Zimbabweans back across the Limpopo, arguing that they will face greater persecution back at home.

 

Professor Loren Landau, who is the CRMSA director and the director of the Forced Migration programme at Wits University, said this during World Refugee Day commemoration held in Johannesburg yesterday.

 

"Our recent report revealed that refugees and asylum seekers are being arrested and persecuted when they are deported back to Zimbabwe. We are against this continued arrest and deportation of Zimbabweans and unaccompanied children by South African police and the Department of Home Affairs."

 

Landau who condemned the current conditions at Lindela Repatriation Centre where 3 000 are  said to be awaiting deportation, urged the department to provide all Zimbabweans arriving in South Africa to seek refuge or asylum status after facing persecution in their own country with a temporary document that is recognized by police.

 

"The current conditions at Lindela are not in line with the Prison Act of South Africa and we call on the government to look at and address this issue," he said. "We also demand that the Department of Home Affairs gives Zimbabweans

coming into the country after facing persecutions a document that is recognized by the police upon arrival to avoid unnecessary deportation back to Zimbabwe."

 

Jack Redden, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees regional  public information officer, said the South African government should acknowledge that Zimbabweans constitute a large percentage of asylum seekers and refugees flowing into the country.

 

"Zimbabweans are forcibly displaced," Redden said. "When addressing refugee and asylum seeker issues, the South African government should recognize that the number of Zimbabweans coming here to seek protection is increasing. This acknowledgement will assist the Department of Home Affairs to resolve the back log by fast-tracking the issuing of permits."

 

South Africa last month deported 1 800 Zimbabweans. Another 3 000 are said to be housed at Lindela Repatriation Centre in Johannesburg, awaiting deportation.

It is not yet clear when they will actually be deported.

 

Earlier this year, the South African government said there had been a sharp

upsurge in the number of illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe fleeing from a combination of starvation and political persecution.

 

Pretoria says more than 50 000 Zimbabweans were deported between January and March this year. South Africa remains the destination of choice for hundreds of thousands of Zimbabwean economic refugees.

 

Last month, President Thabo Mbeki admitted that his government was fighting a losing battle over the issue of illegal immigrants. Most deported immigrants, Zimbabweans, especially, return to South Africa within weeks of their deportation.