LAWYERS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ASKS COURT TO STOP ILLEGAL DETENTIONS AT ZIMBABWE BORDER
Lawyers for Human Rights will approach the High Court in Pretoria tomorrow, Tuesday 24 March 2009, for an urgent order declaring the immigration detention centre located on the military grounds in Musina, unlawful.
Every month, approximately 15 000 Zimbabwean nationals are deported from a detention centre located on a military base outside of the town of Musina close to the Zimbabwean border. Detainees are rounded up along the border and in town by police, immigration and army soldiers and taken to SMG for detention and deportation. This is done without any recourse to due process and the procedures under immigration and refugee legislation.
This detention facility, commonly referred to as "SMG" is operated by the South African Police Services and not by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), whose responsibility it is to manage immigration. People in need of asylum protection risk being returned to face persecution in violation of South African and international law.
In addition, the conditions at this facility are appalling and violate even the minimum standards of detention set by DHA under the Immigration Act. For much of last year there were no toilet facilities and there are still no beds or enough food for detainees to eat. Children are also kept in these conditions before being deported back to Zimbabwe to either face the humanitarian catastrophe in that country or risk the dangerous walk across the Limpopo River back to South Africa.
LHR will be asking the court for an order:
- declaring the operation of the facility unlawful in terms of the Immigration Act;
- declaring the conditions of detention as unlawful and unconstitutional;
- declaring the detention and deportation of unaccompanied children as unlawful;
- directing the Director-General of Home Affairs to either designate the facility an immigration detention facility and drastically improve conditions in compliance with the law or to close the facility down within 30 days.
LHR believes that the SA government, in particular the Department of Home Affairs and SAPS, have an obligation to respect the human dignity of all detainees. This obligation is even more important considering the humanitarian crisis from which most of the detainees at SMG are fleeing.
According to Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh from LHR "Zimbabweans fleeing the humanitarian crisis in that country deserve our protection rather than the inhumane treatment that they receive in Musina".
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For more information, please contact Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh at 011-339 1960 or kaajal [at] lhr [dot] org [dot] za