Plea for special permits

(CRMSA) following the arrest and deportation of thousands of Zimbabweans between May and June this year.
This is the second time CRMSA has publicly urged the SA government to stop deporting Zimbabweans, arguing that they will face persecution and violence at home.
In a recent report released by the Consortium Professor Loren Landau, who is the CRMSA director and the director of the Forced Migration programme at Wits University, said.
“Our recent report revealed that refugees and asylum seekers are being arrested and persecuted when they are deported back to Zimbabwe. We are against this continued arrest and deportation of Zimbabweans and unaccompanied children by South African police and the Department of Home Affairs.”
Landau who condemned the current conditions at Lindela Repatriation Centre where 3 000 are said to be awaiting deportation, urged the department to provide all Zimbabweans arriving in South Africa to seek refuge or asylum status after facing persecution in their own country with a temporary document that is recognized by police.
“The current conditions at Lindela are not in line with the Prison Act of South Africa and we call on the government to look at and address this issue,” he said.
Jack Redden, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees regional public information officer, said the South African government “should recognize that the number of Zimbabweans coming here to seek protection is increasing. This acknowledgement will assist the Department of Home Affairs to resolve the backlog by fast-tracking the issuing of permits. – Nokhutula Khumalo