Where are the Operation Fiyela warrants? LHR asks

 Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) continued to question the legality of raids conducted under the government’s Operation Fiyela.

The organisation tweeted quotes from the head of its strategic litigation unit‚ David Cote‚ who said there were legal issues concerning warrants and the mandate of security forces deployed in the operation.

Operation Fiyela “was formed to root out certain crimes but if we look at stats‚ not many arrests are for crimes highlighted in mandate”‚ Cote said.

He added there has “been violations since beginning” of the operation and “we need to recognise that 800 of 1200 arrested are foreigners”.

“There needs to be a warrant and permission from a magistrate to conduct raids -we’re not seeing that‚” he said.

“Only in exceptional circumstances can a raid be conducted at night without a magistrate's permission.

“It's a rule of law issue - we would like to see what the warrant says and what mandate was given to military.”

Earlier this week‚ LHR won a court order interdicting the deportation of those arrested at the Johannesburg Methodist Church on Friday last week.

More than 200 foreigners can’t be sent home until they have had a chance to speak to human rights lawyers.

LHR had approached the North Gauteng High Court late last week with an urgent application asking for access to seven of their clients and to offer consultation to other detained foreigners in need.

The order was granted but allegedly ignored by the Johannesburg Central station commander who‚ over the weekend‚ denied LHR lawyers access to consult.

This prompted LHR's return to the court.

The new order forces the police at Johannesburg central to give LHR lawyers a detailed list of those arrested‚ the reason for their arrest and their location by tomorrow.

At a media briefing in Braamfontein hosted by Section 27‚ People's Coalition Against Xenophobia member Stephen Faulkner said equating crime with undocumented people‚ far from stopping xenophobia‚ legitimised it.

He said: "We are asking for a complete rethink of Operation Fiyela.

"We believe it wholly inappropriate to organise a national campaign‚ such as Operation Fiyela where‚ instead of tackling the root causes of crime‚ government is harassing and arresting people on a mass scale - people believed to be‚ not actually undocumented‚ visitors to our country."