Controversy continues to stalk the Lindela Repatriation Centre amid claims that the state, which refuses to acknowledge wrongdoing, is illegally keeping foreigners locked up -- and even trying to deport them before their cases have been decided by the courts. Last week, the state tried to subvert the justice system by arranging to deport foreigners held at Lindela before their cases had been finalised by the courts -- which later ordered their immediate release.
Yakubi Adeyemi* was placed on a plane bound for Nigeria in the early hours of March 28 -- but the flight was halted after an urgent court order was obtained by the Legal Resource Centre (LRC). Adeyemi is one of 22 men and women who had been held at Lindela for longer than the 120-day limit allowed for by the Immigration Act of 2002. After the failed bid to deport him, the department of home affairs was ordered by the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to release the entire group, in accordance with the legislation. According to section 34 of the Act, an immigration officer may arrest an illegal foreigner without the need for a warrant and detain them for a period of no longer than 30 days, after which a subsequent 90-day order must be confirmed through a warrant issued by a magistrate. After 120 days of incarceration has elapsed, the Act stipulates all detainees should be released regardless of their official residence status. Additionally the Constitution states "everyone has the right not to be deprived of freedom arbitrarily or without just cause" -- a right afforded both to South Africans and foreigners.
"The department's behaviour [in trying to deport foreigners before the conclusion of the legal process] smacks of arrogance and indicates they are merely trying to prove a point as to who is in charge while people's dignity is violated and their livelihood is being put at risk," LRC attorney Naseema Fakir told the Mail & Guardian.
The LRC had on March 20 asked the court to order the state to release the group of foreigners. After earning a postponement in the case, the department of home affairs failed to appear in court on Thursday March 29, after which the court ordered the state to immediately release all applicants in the matter. However, in between court appearances the department had arranged to deport several applicants in the case. The LRC said it appeared that the haste with which the state tried to deport Adeyemi, who has two young children with his South African partner, was due to the fact that the department had already paid for his airline ticket -- before his case arrived in court.
"The department may look at this from a monetary point of view, but it is ridiculously traumatic for the individuals involved. There is no dignity in simply putting a person on a plane in order to get rid of them," Fakir said.
But the department of home affairs said it had been well within its rights to deport Adeyemi.
"There was no court order at the time the applicants were taken to OR Tambo International Airport to be deported. The order was granted at 5am on 29th March 2012. There was therefore no violation of the court order," the department said.
Ignoring court orders
But even after the court order stipulating immediate released was issued, another Nigerian detainee, Mogeni Oni*, was placed on a bus at Lindela ahead of a planned deportation. After emergency enquiries were made by the LRC as to why Oni was in the process of being deported, he was returned to the confinement area at Lindela. The 22 men and women were eventually released at 7pm on March 30 -- nearly 30 hours after the court order instructing immediate release was issued. The department of home affairs acknowledged that the 120-day limit for extended detention applied, but would not shoulder any blame for exceeding this period.
"The department works with resident embassies and high commissions in South Africa to verify the nationality of deportees and to process their travel documents. This process sometimes takes longer than 120 days," the department said.
The latest events follow a reported uprising at Lindela in which detainees, mainly of Nigerian and Ethiopian descent, were understood to have demanded a meeting with immigration officials after some were kept at the facility for more than nine months. After a violent confrontation, several internees were reported to have sustained serious injuries, with one understood to have been taken to hospital after the incident. After initially failing to respond to questions posed by the M&G on the unrest, the department eventually conceded that an "altercation" had occurred at Lindela but was "quickly brought under control" by officials at the centre. Earlier in March the LRC secured the release of a Nigerian and an Angolan who were unlawfully detained as illegal immigrants. The Nigerian, who had a valid work permit, was held for 114 days, while the Angolan was detained for 132 days without a warrant. The department has been accused of regarding deportation procedures with contempt.
"It seems as though they are truly a law unto themselves and court orders and the like have little effect on them," said Douglas Leresche, a project co-ordinator at People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP), an NGO working to protect and promote the rights of all refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants in South Africa.
While some of 22 foreigners involved in last week's incident are illegal immigrants, others say they have documents proving their stay in South Africa is legitimate. Damurah Mekonen* an Ethiopian national, businessman and resident of Durban for the past 11 years says he was arrested in late October while trying to have his residence permit renewed at Home Affairs offices in Glenwood. Mekonen said he was kept in Durban Westville prison for over a month before being transferred to Lindela, where he was kept for four months. He said no answers about his continued detention were forthcoming.
"These people know nothing. They simply arrest you and ask questions later. If you ask where they are taking you or why, they laugh at you," said Mekonen. "I am not a criminal and I have done nothing wrong. I am here legally and I pay taxes so I don't understand their problem," Merkonen added.
Merkonen, Adeyemi, Oni and the 19 other applicants now have two weeks to sort out the legalities of their stay in South Africa. After that, should they fail to secure the correct documentation, they will again face deportation. The process of organising visas and permits has been criticised as overly complex, with many immigrants saying it takes up to three days of constant queuing simply to renew a visa. The constant delays have led to a number of instances of immigration companies and individuals taking the department of home affairs to court. Some of those being held at Lindela say they ended up there because of reasons that were beyond their control.
Nadine Nzapa, a security guard from the Democratic Republic of Congo who has been in South Africa for six years, has been kept at Lindela for three weeks, after she was arrested for not having a valid work permit. Nzapa says she had not renewed her papers because her employer had threatened to fire her if she took time off to sort out her visa.
"There was nothing I could do. I need money to feed my children and I could not take off work," a tearful Nzapa told the M&G. As a result of her detention, Nzapa's six children, the oldest of which is 13, have been left to fend for themselves at her home in Yeoville.
"I don't know if they are going to school or looking after themselves. My children sometimes phone me and say they were given food, from who I don't know," Nzapa said.
*Names changed for fears of victimisation
Source: Mail & Guardian
Showing posts with label Deportation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Deportation. Show all posts
Monday, April 2, 2012
Friday, March 9, 2012
South Africa ignores deportee torture claims
"When we landed, the soldiers met us at the airport with shotguns and they put us straight into prison," said Didier Kabange*. One of 52 Congolese deported from the Lindela repatriation centre outside Krugersdorp in mid-February, Kabange then spent two weeks in Kasapa prison in Lubumbashi in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before he was released, with 46 other members of his group, last week.
Kabange, speaking by phone this week from the DRC, said that the deportees were deprived of food and water, threatened, beaten and interrogated about their political affiliations. He also expressed concern for the safety of the five still detained in Kasapa.
"There were too much questions. Too much questions [by the authorities]," he said. "They asked us why we left the Congo and what we were doing in South Africa. They asked whether we were protesting against [President Joseph] Kabila and whether we supported [Union for Democracy and Social Progress leader Étienne] Tshisekedi. We say we don't know anything about the government, about the president -- we don't know nothing. All we know is that our [asylum seeker] papers expired so we were sent back."
Deportation could be fatal
There is growing concern among the Congolese in Cape Town and Johannesburg that deportation to the DRC by the department of home affairs is leading to physical abuse, victimisation and possibly death. Activists claim the "indiscriminate" and "harsh" response of the Kabila government is a reaction to protests that followed the DRC's presidential elections in November last year, which are widely alleged to have been won fraudulently by Kabila. One of the activists, Augey Kitoko, said: "The regime has seen our protests in South Africa [including one at the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg and another at the Congolese embassy in Pretoria] and they are embarrassed. So when our people are deported, the security forces come down heavily on them."
The World Organisation Against Torture's 2007 annual report, which was released in mid-2008, stated that "the Congolese authorities are extremely sensitive to activities that could adversely affect their credibility and image abroad, and denunciation of human rights violations is carried out in an environment that is exceedingly dangerous for defenders". The "Unsafe Return" report by the United Kingdom-based charity, Justice First, which tracked the return of 17 failed asylum seekers, two of whom disappeared after touching down in Kinshasa, from the UK to the DRC between 2007 and last year, suggests little has changed. The deportees interviewed reported being raped, tortured, beaten and separated from their children, and claimed that officials extorted money from them to ensure their safety.
Rape, torture prevalent among returnees
According to the report, of the 15 adult returnees, one was "handcuffed, blindfolded and severely beaten", six were "severely beaten", two were tortured with electric shocks, two of the 10 men were sexually abused and two of the five women were raped. The report states that asylum seekers in the UK are considered to be the "main opponents" of the Kabila regime, much like those who have been protesting against the election results in countries such as South Africa, Belgium and Canada.
The report also contains a chilling interview with a Congolese immigration officer who acknowledges that returnees' files are studied "to establish whether the returnee has a problem with the Congolese state", in which case the security services are contacted. The immigration officer says returnees are interrogated on arrival and, if "political problems" with the regime are confirmed, they are sent to Kinshasa's Kin Mazière prison or to a notorious detention centre, called "Tolerance Zero". The official described the procedure: "In such a case [of detention], the returnee can have no excuse, there will be no pity shown. People are caught and can be killed in Tolerance Zero.
Punishment does not take place at the airport but in secret entre coulisses [behind the scenes] … Those who have a problem with the state will be severely ill treated and duly punished. He or she will run the risk of eliminé [being killed]. Detainees do not have access to a lawyer. Any communication with the outside is very difficult."
SA not taking responsibility
South Africa is washing its hands of any responsibility for what is happening. Modiri Matthews, chief director of the immigration inspectorate of home affairs, said his department's main obligation was to "deport people here illegally" after "a thorough credibility test" to ascertain whether their claims for political asylum were valid. He said South Africa had no way of monitoring the safety of people deported to the DRC. "It is up to the respective governments to monitor the safety of those that we deport … The DRC is a sovereign country so we cannot meddle in their affairs."
Matthews said the South African government was not reviewing its position in the light of the concerns about the safety of those being deported to the DRC. The British government has taken a similar stance. This indifference of foreign governments to human rights abuses taking place in the DRC is leaving deportees at the mercy of the Kabila regime. Also, because their refugee status has been denied, they do not fall under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Hard for human rights groups to do their work
It is hard for human rights groups to operate in the DRC, even though it has ratified the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture that allows UN observers access to places of detention. According to Amnesty International's 2011 annual report, during the UN's universal periodic review, in March last year the Kabila government refused observers access to detention centres, including that of the National Intelligence Agency.
DRC information minister Lambert Mende told the Mail & Guardian that allegations of human rights abuses made by returnees to the country were "just a lie". He said that refugees and asylum seekers were "not good sources for information about the truth" about the political situation in the country as they needed to paint a bad picture of the DRC to ensure they were allowed into countries like South Africa and the UK.** The rows of buildings at the Lindela detention and repatriation centre resemble cages for battery chickens. Inside, a slightly built 40-year-old Congolese, Francis Ongoly,* is waiting to be deported. Fear is in his eyes.
"I've heard that the others [deported in February] have been in Kasapa and I don't want to go there. But I am also scared about going home. Where I live [Uvira in the Sud-Kivu province], the militia are always looking for young men like me to fight. If you refuse, you die. I don't want to fight or die," he said.
Ongoly said conditions at Lindela were terrible and illnesses were "only treated with Panado. Whatever illness you have, there is only one medicine -- Panado." On December 21 last year Martin Mukishi, a Congolese national held at Lindela, died because of "poor treatment and negligence", according to Congolese nationals in the repatriation centre.
"When we tried to find out how he died things escalated. The guards came in with rubber bullets, tear gas and batons and they beat us. All we wanted to know is what happened to our brother," said Didier Fuamba who was detained at Lindela for more than two months and only released in February after legal intervention.
Those in Lindela have written to Human Rights Watch. They claim they are being victimised by the South African government, which they say is in cahoots with the Kabila government, in an attempt to stem anti-Kabila protest in South Africa. They also call for an immediate end to deportations, or a possible relocation to another country. Among Congolese nationals living in South Africa, the fear of victimisation is growing -- they claim that both the police and the home affairs department are intent on arresting and deporting them. More than 10 Congolese nationals, either in Lindela or recently released, said that, while trying to renew their temporary papers, they were arrested and sent to Lindela. Some in Lindela claimed that they were arrested at the border without being afforded an opportunity to apply for refugee status. But Matthews said that no specific nationality was being targeted and denied that anyone, including Congolese nationals, would be detained at Lindela without being given the opportunity to apply for refugee status. He said that only "authentic illegal immigrants" were deported, after a "detailed examination and appeal process". "The only detention that can take place is if people have failed in the system," he said.
But the Congolese said the system was failing them. Blaise Lolele, who spent more than three months in Lindela before being released after a court application by his lawyer, said: "I have been renewing my temporary papers since 2006 and, after I was arrested, I was shown my files by a lawyer in Lindela. It showed that my refugee status application had been rejected in 2007. But I was never notified that my application failed; it never came up on the system whenever I renewed my papers. How is this possible?"
* Not their real names
** Translation by Lionel Faull
Source: Mail & Guardian
Kabange, speaking by phone this week from the DRC, said that the deportees were deprived of food and water, threatened, beaten and interrogated about their political affiliations. He also expressed concern for the safety of the five still detained in Kasapa.
"There were too much questions. Too much questions [by the authorities]," he said. "They asked us why we left the Congo and what we were doing in South Africa. They asked whether we were protesting against [President Joseph] Kabila and whether we supported [Union for Democracy and Social Progress leader Étienne] Tshisekedi. We say we don't know anything about the government, about the president -- we don't know nothing. All we know is that our [asylum seeker] papers expired so we were sent back."
Deportation could be fatal
There is growing concern among the Congolese in Cape Town and Johannesburg that deportation to the DRC by the department of home affairs is leading to physical abuse, victimisation and possibly death. Activists claim the "indiscriminate" and "harsh" response of the Kabila government is a reaction to protests that followed the DRC's presidential elections in November last year, which are widely alleged to have been won fraudulently by Kabila. One of the activists, Augey Kitoko, said: "The regime has seen our protests in South Africa [including one at the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg and another at the Congolese embassy in Pretoria] and they are embarrassed. So when our people are deported, the security forces come down heavily on them."
The World Organisation Against Torture's 2007 annual report, which was released in mid-2008, stated that "the Congolese authorities are extremely sensitive to activities that could adversely affect their credibility and image abroad, and denunciation of human rights violations is carried out in an environment that is exceedingly dangerous for defenders". The "Unsafe Return" report by the United Kingdom-based charity, Justice First, which tracked the return of 17 failed asylum seekers, two of whom disappeared after touching down in Kinshasa, from the UK to the DRC between 2007 and last year, suggests little has changed. The deportees interviewed reported being raped, tortured, beaten and separated from their children, and claimed that officials extorted money from them to ensure their safety.
Rape, torture prevalent among returnees
According to the report, of the 15 adult returnees, one was "handcuffed, blindfolded and severely beaten", six were "severely beaten", two were tortured with electric shocks, two of the 10 men were sexually abused and two of the five women were raped. The report states that asylum seekers in the UK are considered to be the "main opponents" of the Kabila regime, much like those who have been protesting against the election results in countries such as South Africa, Belgium and Canada.
The report also contains a chilling interview with a Congolese immigration officer who acknowledges that returnees' files are studied "to establish whether the returnee has a problem with the Congolese state", in which case the security services are contacted. The immigration officer says returnees are interrogated on arrival and, if "political problems" with the regime are confirmed, they are sent to Kinshasa's Kin Mazière prison or to a notorious detention centre, called "Tolerance Zero". The official described the procedure: "In such a case [of detention], the returnee can have no excuse, there will be no pity shown. People are caught and can be killed in Tolerance Zero.
Punishment does not take place at the airport but in secret entre coulisses [behind the scenes] … Those who have a problem with the state will be severely ill treated and duly punished. He or she will run the risk of eliminé [being killed]. Detainees do not have access to a lawyer. Any communication with the outside is very difficult."
SA not taking responsibility
South Africa is washing its hands of any responsibility for what is happening. Modiri Matthews, chief director of the immigration inspectorate of home affairs, said his department's main obligation was to "deport people here illegally" after "a thorough credibility test" to ascertain whether their claims for political asylum were valid. He said South Africa had no way of monitoring the safety of people deported to the DRC. "It is up to the respective governments to monitor the safety of those that we deport … The DRC is a sovereign country so we cannot meddle in their affairs."
Matthews said the South African government was not reviewing its position in the light of the concerns about the safety of those being deported to the DRC. The British government has taken a similar stance. This indifference of foreign governments to human rights abuses taking place in the DRC is leaving deportees at the mercy of the Kabila regime. Also, because their refugee status has been denied, they do not fall under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Hard for human rights groups to do their work
It is hard for human rights groups to operate in the DRC, even though it has ratified the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture that allows UN observers access to places of detention. According to Amnesty International's 2011 annual report, during the UN's universal periodic review, in March last year the Kabila government refused observers access to detention centres, including that of the National Intelligence Agency.
DRC information minister Lambert Mende told the Mail & Guardian that allegations of human rights abuses made by returnees to the country were "just a lie". He said that refugees and asylum seekers were "not good sources for information about the truth" about the political situation in the country as they needed to paint a bad picture of the DRC to ensure they were allowed into countries like South Africa and the UK.** The rows of buildings at the Lindela detention and repatriation centre resemble cages for battery chickens. Inside, a slightly built 40-year-old Congolese, Francis Ongoly,* is waiting to be deported. Fear is in his eyes.
"I've heard that the others [deported in February] have been in Kasapa and I don't want to go there. But I am also scared about going home. Where I live [Uvira in the Sud-Kivu province], the militia are always looking for young men like me to fight. If you refuse, you die. I don't want to fight or die," he said.
Ongoly said conditions at Lindela were terrible and illnesses were "only treated with Panado. Whatever illness you have, there is only one medicine -- Panado." On December 21 last year Martin Mukishi, a Congolese national held at Lindela, died because of "poor treatment and negligence", according to Congolese nationals in the repatriation centre.
"When we tried to find out how he died things escalated. The guards came in with rubber bullets, tear gas and batons and they beat us. All we wanted to know is what happened to our brother," said Didier Fuamba who was detained at Lindela for more than two months and only released in February after legal intervention.
Those in Lindela have written to Human Rights Watch. They claim they are being victimised by the South African government, which they say is in cahoots with the Kabila government, in an attempt to stem anti-Kabila protest in South Africa. They also call for an immediate end to deportations, or a possible relocation to another country. Among Congolese nationals living in South Africa, the fear of victimisation is growing -- they claim that both the police and the home affairs department are intent on arresting and deporting them. More than 10 Congolese nationals, either in Lindela or recently released, said that, while trying to renew their temporary papers, they were arrested and sent to Lindela. Some in Lindela claimed that they were arrested at the border without being afforded an opportunity to apply for refugee status. But Matthews said that no specific nationality was being targeted and denied that anyone, including Congolese nationals, would be detained at Lindela without being given the opportunity to apply for refugee status. He said that only "authentic illegal immigrants" were deported, after a "detailed examination and appeal process". "The only detention that can take place is if people have failed in the system," he said.
But the Congolese said the system was failing them. Blaise Lolele, who spent more than three months in Lindela before being released after a court application by his lawyer, said: "I have been renewing my temporary papers since 2006 and, after I was arrested, I was shown my files by a lawyer in Lindela. It showed that my refugee status application had been rejected in 2007. But I was never notified that my application failed; it never came up on the system whenever I renewed my papers. How is this possible?"
* Not their real names
** Translation by Lionel Faull
Source: Mail & Guardian
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Court orders release of asylum seekers
The department of home affairs in Cape Town has been issued with a high court order to release asylum seekers who have been detained illegally. According to ProBono.net, home affairs in Durban and Cape Town have been involved in a scheme where asylum seekers are lured to department offices under the pretence that they should collect documents. They are then arrested and detained before facing deportation.
The Cape High Court on Monday issued a ruling that arrested asylum seekers be immediately released. The department's procedure is usually to give those who fail to qualify for asylum in South Africa a 30-day period during which they should leave of their own accord. Only when this is not done would deportation procedures begin.
The department in Durban was given the relevant documents by lawyers acting for the asylum seekers but authorities allegedly failed to bring them to court and have refused to release the group currently housed at Westville Prison.
Source: Mail & Guardian
The Cape High Court on Monday issued a ruling that arrested asylum seekers be immediately released. The department's procedure is usually to give those who fail to qualify for asylum in South Africa a 30-day period during which they should leave of their own accord. Only when this is not done would deportation procedures begin.
The department in Durban was given the relevant documents by lawyers acting for the asylum seekers but authorities allegedly failed to bring them to court and have refused to release the group currently housed at Westville Prison.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Friday, October 7, 2011
Home affairs resumes Zim deportations
The moratorium on deporting illegal Zimbabweans has quietly been lifted by the department of home affairs, leading to an outcry from refugee rights groups. No deportations of Zimbabweans have taken place for almost two years while home affairs have been running the Zimbabwe documentation project (ZDP) to offer legal status to Zimbabweans living illegally in South Africa. Organisations working with migrants are angry that the department has not been open about a memo that was circulated among the police, army and refugee offices on September 27 explaining that deportations would resume.
The Mail & Guardian has a copy of the directive issued by director general of home affairs Mkuseli Apleni to the defence force, police offices and department of home affairs branches. The directive says "it aims to give clarity on Zimbabwean nationals who are not presently detected", and outlines the procedure that officers must follow when deporting immigrants. Home affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa would not answer questions about the directive but did issue a press release this week saying that illegal immigrants could not claim protection under South Africa's laws. "No country in the world will allow illegal immigration within its borders. This is international practice," he said. Mamoepa told the M&G that the government had shown goodwill in attempting to regularise the status of Zimbabweans in the country and had given them a window of opportunity to hand in their fraudulent documents in return for amnesty.
People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty's (PASSOP) Braam Hanekom said the "deportations are in direct contradiction to the recent undertakings made by home affairs director general, Mr Apleni, to Parliament not to embark on deportations of Zimbabweans until the Zimbabwean documentation project has been completed, appeals reviewed and the minister has approved deportations."
But the ZDP project is not complete. According to a research report compiled by the African Centre for Migration Studies (ACMS), "as of October 4, 145 000 permits were dispatched of 275 762 that were received, though processing was still taking place".
Human Rights Watch estimates that there are 1.5-million Zimbabweans in the country, although fewer than 300 000 applied for legal paperwork during the amnesty period. ACMS senior researcher Roni Amit said the resumption of deportations was "going to create problems". She said refugee rights groups were angry because home affairs had not been transparent about resuming deportations and that media reports this week had included denials of such a directive.
Amit said police who arrested Zimbabweans and sent them to deportation centres generally did not verify whether the individuals were still waiting for permits. The directive instructs officers to check if "the suspect has a pending application" for legal status and to conduct an interview with the suspect. But Amit was not convinced by this, saying: "The verification system does not work." Amit said public health groups had not been given advance warning that deportations were about to start. ACMS researcher Jo Vearey said Zimbabweans on chronic medicine for tuberculosis or HIV/Aids needed to continue taking their medication after deportation or run the risk of developing resistance to the diseases or catching multidrug resistant TB.
"Detention facilities are the perfect space for onward transmission of TB, and this poses a health risk to police officers and public immigration officials."
Source: Mail & Guardian
The Mail & Guardian has a copy of the directive issued by director general of home affairs Mkuseli Apleni to the defence force, police offices and department of home affairs branches. The directive says "it aims to give clarity on Zimbabwean nationals who are not presently detected", and outlines the procedure that officers must follow when deporting immigrants. Home affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa would not answer questions about the directive but did issue a press release this week saying that illegal immigrants could not claim protection under South Africa's laws. "No country in the world will allow illegal immigration within its borders. This is international practice," he said. Mamoepa told the M&G that the government had shown goodwill in attempting to regularise the status of Zimbabweans in the country and had given them a window of opportunity to hand in their fraudulent documents in return for amnesty.
People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty's (PASSOP) Braam Hanekom said the "deportations are in direct contradiction to the recent undertakings made by home affairs director general, Mr Apleni, to Parliament not to embark on deportations of Zimbabweans until the Zimbabwean documentation project has been completed, appeals reviewed and the minister has approved deportations."
But the ZDP project is not complete. According to a research report compiled by the African Centre for Migration Studies (ACMS), "as of October 4, 145 000 permits were dispatched of 275 762 that were received, though processing was still taking place".
Human Rights Watch estimates that there are 1.5-million Zimbabweans in the country, although fewer than 300 000 applied for legal paperwork during the amnesty period. ACMS senior researcher Roni Amit said the resumption of deportations was "going to create problems". She said refugee rights groups were angry because home affairs had not been transparent about resuming deportations and that media reports this week had included denials of such a directive.
Amit said police who arrested Zimbabweans and sent them to deportation centres generally did not verify whether the individuals were still waiting for permits. The directive instructs officers to check if "the suspect has a pending application" for legal status and to conduct an interview with the suspect. But Amit was not convinced by this, saying: "The verification system does not work." Amit said public health groups had not been given advance warning that deportations were about to start. ACMS researcher Jo Vearey said Zimbabweans on chronic medicine for tuberculosis or HIV/Aids needed to continue taking their medication after deportation or run the risk of developing resistance to the diseases or catching multidrug resistant TB.
"Detention facilities are the perfect space for onward transmission of TB, and this poses a health risk to police officers and public immigration officials."
Source: Mail & Guardian
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Deportation was unlawful
Human rights activists have accused the Home Affairs Department of violating legislation governing the treatment of illegal foreigners after this week's court ruling that Pakistani national Khalid Rashid was illegally detained and deported in 2005. They also called for an immediate review of the department's immigration policies.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) this week upheld an application, brought on Rashid's behalf, to have his detention at the Cullinan police station on November 1 2005 and his subsequent deportation to Pakistan on November 6 declared unlawful.
"This judgment proves that the department's immigration policies are very irregular. We have had several judgments of this nature -- the Rashid case is a drop in the ocean," said Dosso Ndessomin, coordinator of the Body for Refugee Communities. But Ndessomin doubted that a court judgment was sufficient to change government's approach. Lawyers for Human Rights's Jacob van Garderen said that in future the department would have to consider deportation and detention cases carefully. The civil proceedings against the department over the Rashid case could be damaging.
"We expect the department to study the judgment carefully and communicate with the immigration offices [especially at border posts] to avoid similar cases," he said.
Van Garderen said that in the past three months Lawyers for Human Rights had obtained eight court orders forcing the department to release asylum seekers who had been detained unlawfully at the Lindela Repatriation Centre. After his arrest Rashid was handed to Pakistani officials at the Waterkloof military air base in Pretoria. He was flown to Pakistan and held in custody amid speculation that he was suspected of links with international terrorist organisations. The SCA found that his removal from South Africa was apparently effected secretly without his relatives or friends being informed. The court said that as an illegal foreigner Rashid was liable to arrest, but the Immigration Act required that a warrant be issued by an immigration officer for detention and removal from a place of detention. In Rashid's case no warrant was obtained. The court ordered Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula to pay the costs incurred by Ismail Ebrahim Jeebhai, a Lenasia-based businessman who started court proceedings on Rashid's behalf, and his attorneys. This week one of the attorneys, Zehir Omar, said he was trying to contact Rashid in Pakistan to prepare to sue the department.
"I'd be very pleased if we came to the bottom of Rashid's removal from this country and to embark on civil proceedings against the department," said Omar. The SCA judgment, he said, had not elaborated on the reasons for Rahid's deportation.
"He was surreptitiously removed from the country because he was suspected of being a terrorist. Yet today he is a free man in Pakistan. That is a disguised extradition," he said.
In February 2007 the high court ruled that Rashid's detention and deportation were lawfully carried out. At the time of going to press the Mail & Guardian had not yet received a response from Home Affairs.
Source: Mail & Guardian
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) this week upheld an application, brought on Rashid's behalf, to have his detention at the Cullinan police station on November 1 2005 and his subsequent deportation to Pakistan on November 6 declared unlawful.
"This judgment proves that the department's immigration policies are very irregular. We have had several judgments of this nature -- the Rashid case is a drop in the ocean," said Dosso Ndessomin, coordinator of the Body for Refugee Communities. But Ndessomin doubted that a court judgment was sufficient to change government's approach. Lawyers for Human Rights's Jacob van Garderen said that in future the department would have to consider deportation and detention cases carefully. The civil proceedings against the department over the Rashid case could be damaging.
"We expect the department to study the judgment carefully and communicate with the immigration offices [especially at border posts] to avoid similar cases," he said.
Van Garderen said that in the past three months Lawyers for Human Rights had obtained eight court orders forcing the department to release asylum seekers who had been detained unlawfully at the Lindela Repatriation Centre. After his arrest Rashid was handed to Pakistani officials at the Waterkloof military air base in Pretoria. He was flown to Pakistan and held in custody amid speculation that he was suspected of links with international terrorist organisations. The SCA found that his removal from South Africa was apparently effected secretly without his relatives or friends being informed. The court said that as an illegal foreigner Rashid was liable to arrest, but the Immigration Act required that a warrant be issued by an immigration officer for detention and removal from a place of detention. In Rashid's case no warrant was obtained. The court ordered Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula to pay the costs incurred by Ismail Ebrahim Jeebhai, a Lenasia-based businessman who started court proceedings on Rashid's behalf, and his attorneys. This week one of the attorneys, Zehir Omar, said he was trying to contact Rashid in Pakistan to prepare to sue the department.
"I'd be very pleased if we came to the bottom of Rashid's removal from this country and to embark on civil proceedings against the department," said Omar. The SCA judgment, he said, had not elaborated on the reasons for Rahid's deportation.
"He was surreptitiously removed from the country because he was suspected of being a terrorist. Yet today he is a free man in Pakistan. That is a disguised extradition," he said.
In February 2007 the high court ruled that Rashid's detention and deportation were lawfully carried out. At the time of going to press the Mail & Guardian had not yet received a response from Home Affairs.
Source: Mail & Guardian
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