HARARE The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said it has begun to implement a contingency plan to provide humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwean migrants who may be forcibly returned from South Africa following the end of a regularisation campaign on 31 December 2010.
Hundreds of thousands of irregular Zimbabwean migrants could face deportation from South Africa as only about a sixth of the estimated Zimbabwean irregular migrant population applied for legal status. Nearly 276,000 Zimbabweans registered for regularisation through the campaign that began last September.
However, there are an estimated 1.5 million Zimbabweans living in South Africa, many of whom migrated as a result of the social and economic unrest in Zimbabwe in recent years. IOM announced last week that it would provide humanitarian and
protection assistance to vulnerable returnees, including unaccompanied minors under a programme it has launched in partnership with humanitarian partners and the Zimbabwean and South African governments.
Under the plan, IOM, with support from local and international organizations, has prepositioned non-food items including tents and blankets at Reception and Support Centres at the Beitbridge and Plumtree border crossings into Zimbabwe, a spokesperson for the agency said. The locations, bordering South Africa and Botswana, are two of the principal points for cross border traffic for Zimbabwean migrants.
The IOM Beitbridge and Plumtree centres which opened in 2006 and 2008 have assisted some 316 000 and 121 000 returnees respectively with protection services, basic medical treatment and health-related referrals, temporary shelter, food, water and sanitation facilities, psychosocial counselling, information on HIV and AIDS, family tracing and reunification assistance and transportation. In September 2010, agreement was reached between the Zimbabwean and South African governments to register all Zimbabwean nationals currently residing in South Africa.
As part of the arrangement, irregular Zimbabwean migrants had to apply for legal residency status based on employment or business ownership in South Africa by December 31 or risk deportation. Zimbabwean migrants faced a number of challenges to regularizing their status, including a backlog for processing passport applications in Zimbabwe itself.
IOM assisted registration efforts by providing material, equipment and staff to support a mobile registration centre as well as working with a farm association in the Limpopo border area to identify communities and facilitate registration of Zimbabwean nationals within the Province. Meanwhile a South African-based human rights group said last week that nearly half the Zimbabwean immigrants who applied for permits to stay in South Africa are still waiting for passports they need to produce before they can get the South African documents.
The People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (Passop) said that a survey it carried out as Zimbabweans rushed to beat the December 31 deadline to apply for permits showed that about 100 000 of those who were able to submit applications do not have passports. As we were monitoring centres towards the end of the deadline we found people lacked Zimbabwean passports and documents,” Passop official Braam Hanekom said last Wednesday.
“These Zimbabweans (waiting for passports) have clearly shown that they intend on legalising their stay in South Africa, but now find themselves in limbo and at the mercy of an unscrupulous Zimbabwean government,” Hanekom said
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