Immigrants protest ill-treatment

Scores of immigrants from five Southern African countries marched to a deportation centre in South Africa this week to protest against the alleged abuse of foreigners on the premises.

A director of rights NGO, the Southern African Women's Institute for Migration Affairs, Joyce Dube, who coordinated the march, told IRIN that about a 100 immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Angola had demonstrated at the Lindela Repatriation Centre outside Johannesburg on Thursday.

"The problem is that the South African authorities do not check whether the immigrants, particularly the Zimbabweans, are genuine asylum seekers - they merely arrest them and deport them," Dube claimed.

Gabriel Shumba, the legal advisor of the NGO, Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, said that of the 5,000 Zimbabwean immigrants in South Africa, only 11 had been given asylum. "We have received reports of torture in the centre, and that the immigrants do not have access to adequate sanitation."

Emily Wellman, an activist who also participated in the demonstration, claimed the inmates did not have access to proper medical care. "The centre has the capacity to hold 5,000 people, but often immigrants are squeezed in and subjected to inhuman conditions. We were hoping to appeal to the hearts and the minds of the authorities to accord some dignity and respect to the asylum seekers [by protesting]."

Home Affairs spokesperson Mike Ramagoma described the allegations of torture and unhygienic conditions at the Lindela centre as "malicious". "The centre is open for public scrutiny at all times and is scrupulously clean - I visit the centre frequently," he said.

Ramagoma also refuted allegations of immigrants being denied asylum status. "All immigrants, including Zimbabweans wanting to apply for asylum status are welcome to do so and will be given asylum seekers status after investigations. If found eligible, the applicant will be granted refugee status. No illegal Zimbabweans will be tolerated - they have to apply for the proper permit."

Reuters news agency reported earlier this week on the hearings before the government's Human Rights Commission, when rights activists said many illegal foreigners ended up incarcerated in overcrowded detention centres.

In her submission Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh of Lawyers for Human Rights alleged that at least 25 foreigners had died at Lindela, while others, including children, had reportedly been abused.

"Assault has occurred, and it does occur ... but it is very difficult to monitor," Reuters quoted her as saying.

Zimbabweans make up the bulk of illegal foreigners deported by South Africa, and Ramjathan-Keogh said the process was often brutal, with migrants taken by train to the Zimbabwe border and held in outdoor pens, pending repatriation.

The South African Press Association (SAPA) reported that the hearing was also told there were no free movement agreements between southern African countries, and immigration laws did not take into account integration and movement in the region.

There were long delays in asylum applications, with allegations of bribery in some departments, and when people had the correct paperwork, officials, particularly in hospitals, discriminated against them, the hearing was told.

Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula admitted to the commission that there were problems and delays in her department, many of them due to a lack of resources, but said these were being addressed, reported SAPA.

She condemned "the scourge" of xenophobia and said officials who treated asylum seekers and refugees unfairly were not a reflection of government policies.