South Africa October 2006 |
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| SA police told to stop harassing Zimbabweans, (Zim Greats, 2006-10-26):-Hillbrow and central Johannesburg police media information officer Mududuzi Zondo has called upon the South Africa police force to cease arresting and harassing Zimbabweans and other foreigners with valid asylum permits and passports The call came after hundreds of asylum seeker and traders in South Africa had been rounded detained at Lindela and deported to Zimbabwe. South Africa police launches “operation festive” annually between November and December intended at cracking down on illegal immigrants and criminals in Hillbrow and central Johannesburg. “As we are approaching the festive season and we have launched various operations aimed at cracking on criminals and illegal immigrants. This will be a crack down on both locals and foreigners. Police will arrest individuals involved in any criminal activities and who obstruct the laws of this country and those without appropriate documents. However, we call upon members of the police to desist from arresting and harassing innocent foreigners holding valid asylum documents or passports,” said Zondo. Hillbrow police vowed to leave no stone unturned in rooting out criminal elements ahead of the festive season. According to information released by the police, 200 people were arrested over the weekend and 3 fire arms, 6 packets of cocaine rocks and 83 units of dagga were confiscated. Police said people were arrested for crimes ranging from armed robbery, assault, rape, theft and attempted murder. South Africa’s department of Home Affairs says it is battling to contain a tide of Zimbabwean immigrants pouring across the border fleeing their home country because of economic turmoil. Department officials recently told the local press that they had deported 51 000 illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe between January and June this year but more immigrants continued flooding through the absorbent border between the region’s economic powerhouse and its troubled northern neighbour. The department which said it had taken a ‘financial knock’ from the influx of immigrants said it was on average deporting 265 Zimbabweans every day while the cost of detaining illegal immigrants had shot up from R22 per day five years ago to R75 today. Pretoria spent a total of R218 million on immigration control last year - more than double the amount the department spent in 2004. Last year 97 433 Zimbabweans were deported from South Africa while 72 112 were removed from the country in 2004. Legal practitioners said South Africa's migration policing policy has not changed substantially since the demise of apartheid. As tactics used by the police in recent operations are dramatically similar to apartheid policing practices. Police said the increase in the number of foreigners in the country has created tensions with South African citizens, many of whom have blamed escalating crime on illegal immigrants and refugees. Xenophobia has become a problem in some areas of the country. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |