South Africa March 2006 |
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| Deportees now destitute, (Zimbabwe Situation, 2006-03-17):-Over 8 000 Zimbabweans deported from South Africa this month are living in destitution at the Beitbridge border post, with some dying and their bodies lying unclaimed in a hospital mortuary, an international migration organisation has said. Islene Aravjo, the health advisor for the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), yesterday said the 8 000 was a figure recorded this March. A senior Zimbabwean official has also confirmed that there is an influx of deportees from South Africa. On average, there were at least 2 000 Zimbabweans deported from South Africa every month, for illegally residing in the country, indicated the report. "There are 8 000 deportees at the Beitbridge border post right now. Most of these people do not have money because they would have gone to work on South African farms and get booted out without pay. They become destitute and it becomes a humanitarian concern," Aravjo said. "Some of the deportees are evidently ill and in most cases do not have food or money to transport themselves back to their home, so they cross back into South Africa by wading across the Limpopo River. Some, in their desperation, try to walk back and fall ill or die along the way with no one to identify them." She said many of these people had been hospitalised and died, with their bodies lying unclaimed in the Beitbridge Hospital Mortuary. "Right now, there are as many as 20 corpses in the Beitbridge Hospital mortuary, when it is supposed to hold only six," said Aravjo. Aravjo added that 80 percent of the deportees were below 25 years of age and were mostly teenagers. She said her organisation was in the process of establishing a reception centre at the border post to accommodate deportees and source bus fares for them so that they could travel back to their original homes. Zimbabwe's principal immigration officer, John Kambunda, could not confirm the figures released by IOM. "You would have to contact the principal immigration officer for Beitbridge over the figure. I would have been in a better position to comment had I got the figures from the organisation concerned (IOM)," Kambunda said. He, however, admitted there was an influx of deportees at the border post and confirmed the establishment of a reception centre. The immigration official said: "Deportees face problems after clearance by immigration. Some of them get stranded because they have no food to eat and have nowhere to sleep, while others do not have money to travel back to their homes. "We are in the process of establishing a reception centre about which you shall be informed. It is an inter-ministerial project that will involve the Social Welfare Department as well as the ministries of health and home affairs." Aravjo made the revelations at a briefing over Sweden's extension of US$5 million (40 million Swedish Kroner) support towards humanitarian assistance in Zimbabwe at the Swedish Embassy in the capital yesterday. Many Zimbabweans have left the country in pursuit of economic fortunes outside the country, but most of them have done so illegally. South Africa has introduced a tight Visa regime against Zimbabweans to control their movement into the country. Many have, however, beaten the tight restrictions by wading across the mighty Limpopo River, risking their lives in the process. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |