The Strategic Litigation Programme under their Detention Monitoring Unit have recently launched a handbook : A Practitioners Guide to Immigration Detention in South Africa.

The purpose of this handbook is to provide a detailed guide to the law of immigration detention in South Africa today. It is a living document. It is intended to map out application of these laws and policies to demonstrate how laws and policies are impacting the management of migration. It is an invaluable contribution as a source of information that aims to debunk myths by pointing out our failings as a democracy with respect to the unlawfulness of arrests, detention and deportation of foreign nationals in South Africa almost as a matter of routine. Just the term ‘illegal immigrant’ or ‘illegal foreigner’ is problematic for a variety of reasons, including the manner in which it dehumanises migrants and assumes that any person could be ‘illegal.’ It is unjust that the majority of foreign nationals who bear the brunt of the failure of immigration officials, SAPS and the military to respect the rule of law are Black African migrants from the continent.