Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) Deported criminals terrorise Beitbridge

Deported criminals terrorise Beitbridge
26/08/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

OFFICIALS in Beitbridge have expressed concern over the “haphazard deportation” of criminals from South Africa blaming the felons for fueling crime in the border town.

South Africa has stepped up deportations of illegal immigrants in recent months but Beitbridge border post assistant regional immigration manager, Charles Gwede, said the deportees were not being vetted to fish out ex-convicts.

“South African authorities are supposed to deport ex-convicts separately, but sadly we continue to receive them under a mixed batch and that is now a major challenge," he said.

“They are supposed to be vetted first and then categorised accordingly because most of them end up engaging in criminal activities.”

Last week more than one thousand Zimbabweans through Beitbridge, bringing to about 35,000 the number of illegal immigrants sent back home since the exercise last year October when South Africa resumed removals of illegal immigrants.

“We received 1,207 deportees this week who were brought in through Beitbridge Border Post aboard buses,” Gwede said.

“We have so far handled 35,031 deportees since the exercise resumed on 7 October last year. Between 1 January and 24 August, 27 276 Zimbabweans were brought back home,” he said.

The latest batch of deportees was brought in aboard seven buses from the main Lindela Detention Centre outside Johannesburg.

On arrival in the country, the returnees are received by the immigration authorities at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Beitbridge Reception and Support Centre where they are vetted to establish whether they are bona fide Zimbabweans.

IOM then offers the deportees overnight accommodation, medication, food and transport to proceed to their respective homes. The IOM center has capacity to accommodate 600 people at any given time.

However, some of the deportees turn down any form of assistance from the IOM and most cross back into South Africa illegally through undesignated entry points along the Limpopo River.

Gwede said several border jumpers were taking advantage of the drop in water levels in the Limpopo River to illegally cross the border through undesignated entry points.
“We are saying there is a need to intensify border patrols to reduce border jumping,” he said.

“We have realised that of late there has been a sharp increase in the number of people capitalising on the drop in water levels to cross the Limpopo River into South Africa.

“But we would like to warn people against using undesignated entry points as they risk being attacked by robbers who operate in bushy areas along the river.”

Since the deportations started, the Beitbridge immigration department has been receiving an average of 80 people on less busy days with the number increasing to more than 500 mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays when the Lindela Detention Centre would is cleared for new arrivals.

Resumption of the removalss marked the end of an amnesty for illegal Zimbabwean immigrants staying in South Africa that ran from May 2009 to July this year.

Rights groups estimate that about a million Zimbabweans moved to South Africa over the last few years to escape a biting economic crisis back home.
Over 275,000 of them have since regularised their stay in the country but many remain undocumented.

Labels: CRIME

posted by MrK @ 2:29 PM