Press Release: Lawyers for Human Rights raises concerns about respect for human rights during the deportations to Zimbabwe, due to resume 1 August
Lawyers for Human Rights is concerned about the large numbers of Zimbabweans who will become vulnerable to arrest and deportation at the start of August when the moratorium on deportations is lifted. This moratorium has been in place since April 2009 when Home Affairs took the decision not to carry out any further deportations to Zimbabwe for a defined period. The moratorium was supposed to be implemented together with a special dispensation for Zimbabweans to be able to regularise their immigration status. However, this special dispensation was only implemented from September to 31 December 2010. Any Zimbabwean who failed to successfully apply for one of the available permits during this time and will find themselves undocumented on 1 August may be legitimately deported for not having any authorisation to remain in the country. This deportation process will exclude any Zimbabwean who is in the asylum system and has a valid asylum seeker or refugee permit.
How many Zimbabweans are vulnerable to deportation?
There are estimates of up to 1.5 million Zimbabweans in the country. About 130 000 of these are in the asylum system and just over 133 810 (out of the 275 514 who applied under the ZDP) have so far been approved for the ZDP permits. This leaves more than a million people still vulnerable to deportation. Some of these persons are in possession of permits in terms of the Immigration Act- but this is likely to be only a minority.
These last few weeks have seen many Zimbabweans scrambling around in an attempt to protect themselves from possible deportation procedures. According to Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, at Lawyers for Human Rights, “The detection of undocumented foreigners in South Africa has largely been informal and impromptu. There is no specialised immigration enforcement unit which seeks out specific persons who may be illegally in the country. The detection work is mostly carried out by police officers who hand any suspected illegal persons over to immigration for investigation”. She added that, “This process of arrest and confirmation of immigration status could take anything from a few hours to a few weeks to finalise before an illegal foreigner is ready to be deported. From our observations in the pre-April 2009 period deportations to Zimbabwe usually took place very frequently so that detained persons did not spend an overly long time in detention pending deportation. This was however dependent on the location of the arrest and numbers of people who were awaiting deportation. We also observed that many deported persons did choose to return to South Africa”.
LHR is aware that Home Affairs intends to finger print deported persons so that they can keep track of persons who have been deported previously. However we are not aware of what Home Affairs intends to do with people who routinely migrate through irregular means and are repeatedly arrested for being unlawfully in the country.
Rights of Zimbabweans in the deportation process
LHR maintains that Zimbabweans have the same protection needs as other persons. They are entitled to the protection and respect for basic rights during the deportation process. LHR would warn against repeated mass raids directed at the Zimbabwean communities. We would instead recommend some pre-arrest preparations to facilitate the smooth reintegration of Zimbabweans back to their country. This would include the ability of deported persons to be able to gather the necessary documents and personal belongings when the deportation proceedings are pending. These documents would include: health documents especially those with details of any ARV regimes, birth documentation for children born in South Africa, Zimbabwean identity documentation etc.
These are the basic rights which should be guaranteed as part of the deportation process:
- Right to life, dignity, freedom from bodily harm
- Right to due process and administrative justice
- Right to confirmation of documentation status if a person is arrested without their documents on them
- Right to collect any payments for work done, and other valuables
- Right to non-refoulement (not returning a person to a country where their life or fundamental rights may be in danger)
- Right not to return a stateless person to a country which does not recognise them as a citizen
We are extremely concerned that children and other vulnerable groups of people will become caught up in this deportation process and that there may be little consideration of their protection needs.
We are also concerned that documented Zimbabweans or Zimbabweans that applied under the ZDP but haven’t yet received their permits may be caught up in deportation proceedings, if procedural safeguards in the Immigration Act are not adhered to.
Ramjathan-Keogh added that, “As the avenues for Zimbabweans to regularise their immigration status closes up, it is likely that some people may out of desperation seek to acquire fake identity documents to enable to remain in the country. This is likely to have very serious consequences if they are detected as this could attract both a criminal record as well as a custodial sentence”.
28th July 2011
Lawyers for Human Rights is concerned about the large numbers of Zimbabweans who will become vulnerable to arrest and deportation at the start of August when the moratorium on deportations is lifted. This moratorium has been in place since April 2009 when Home Affairs took the decision not to carry out any further deportations to Zimbabwe for a defined period. The moratorium was supposed to be implemented together with a special dispensation for Zimbabweans to be able to regularise their immigration status. However, this special dispensation was only implemented from September to 31 December 2010. Any Zimbabwean who failed to successfully apply for one of the available permits during this time and will find themselves undocumented on 1 August may be legitimately deported for not having any authorisation to remain in the country. This deportation process will exclude any Zimbabwean who is in the asylum system and has a valid asylum seeker or refugee permit.
How many Zimbabweans are vulnerable to deportation?
There are estimates of up to 1.5 million Zimbabweans in the country. About 130 000 of these are in the asylum system and just over 133 810 (out of the 275 514 who applied under the ZDP) have so far been approved for the ZDP permits. This leaves more than a million people still vulnerable to deportation. Some of these persons are in possession of permits in terms of the Immigration Act- but this is likely to be only a minority.
These last few weeks have seen many Zimbabweans scrambling around in an attempt to protect themselves from possible deportation procedures. According to Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, at Lawyers for Human Rights, “The detection of undocumented foreigners in South Africa has largely been informal and impromptu. There is no specialised immigration enforcement unit which seeks out specific persons who may be illegally in the country. The detection work is mostly carried out by police officers who hand any suspected illegal persons over to immigration for investigation”. She added that, “This process of arrest and confirmation of immigration status could take anything from a few hours to a few weeks to finalise before an illegal foreigner is ready to be deported. From our observations in the pre-April 2009 period deportations to Zimbabwe usually took place very frequently so that detained persons did not spend an overly long time in detention pending deportation. This was however dependent on the location of the arrest and numbers of people who were awaiting deportation. We also observed that many deported persons did choose to return to South Africa”.
LHR is aware that Home Affairs intends to finger print deported persons so that they can keep track of persons who have been deported previously. However we are not aware of what Home Affairs intends to do with people who routinely migrate through irregular means and are repeatedly arrested for being unlawfully in the country.
Rights of Zimbabweans in the deportation process
LHR maintains that Zimbabweans have the same protection needs as other persons. They are entitled to the protection and respect for basic rights during the deportation process. LHR would warn against repeated mass raids directed at the Zimbabwean communities. We would instead recommend some pre-arrest preparations to facilitate the smooth reintegration of Zimbabweans back to their country. This would include the ability of deported persons to be able to gather the necessary documents and personal belongings when the deportation proceedings are pending. These documents would include: health documents especially those with details of any ARV regimes, birth documentation for children born in South Africa, Zimbabwean identity documentation etc.
These are the basic rights which should be guaranteed as part of the deportation process:
- Right to life, dignity, freedom from bodily harm
- Right to due process and administrative justice
- Right to confirmation of documentation status if a person is arrested without their documents on them
- Right to collect any payments for work done, and other valuables
- Right to non-refoulement (not returning a person to a country where their life or fundamental rights may be in danger)
- Right not to return a stateless person to a country which does not recognise them as a citizen
We are extremely concerned that children and other vulnerable groups of people will become caught up in this deportation process and that there may be little consideration of their protection needs.
We are also concerned that documented Zimbabweans or Zimbabweans that applied under the ZDP but haven’t yet received their permits may be caught up in deportation proceedings, if procedural safeguards in the Immigration Act are not adhered to.
Ramjathan-Keogh added that, “As the avenues for Zimbabweans to regularise their immigration status closes up, it is likely that some people may out of desperation seek to acquire fake identity documents to enable to remain in the country. This is likely to have very serious consequences if they are detected as this could attract both a criminal record as well as a custodial sentence”.
28th July 2011
Contact LHR:
Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh + 27 ( 0) 11 339 1960 kaajal [at] lhr [dot] org [dot] za
Nicola Whittaker + 27 ( 0) 11 339 1960 nicola [at] lhr [dot] org [dot] za
Jacob van Garderen + 27 (0) 828203960 jacob [at] lhr [dot] org [dot] za