In just two days, 65 Zimbabweans were refused entry by immigration officers here, hundreds were sent home, but 19 asked for political asylum and are now waiting for their cases to be decided.
The move has caused great concern among Zimbabweans, who have long regarded South Africa as a second home and haven in times of trouble. Opposition members can operate freely in South Africa, whereas they face restrictions and intimidation under the Mugabe regime at home.
Many others simply want a break in South Africa from the political and economic turmoil that has gripped their country, worsened by Mugabe’s fraudulent re-election in a one-man presidential race on June 27.
A Home Office official said this week that immigration officers were showing “greater vigilance” towards Zimbabweans suspected of moving to South Africa as economic migrants.
“It will not be business as usual anymore,” South Africa Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said.
The move has angered the Zimbabwean community in South Africa.
“It is not true that people are coming here for economic reasons – they are coming here purely to seek protection,” Arthur Moyo, a Zimbabwean exile, said.
Reports from Johannesburg stated that hundreds of immigrants huddled at the Glenada refugee centre were forcibly kicked out by Home Office officials for allegedly failing to obtain temporary South African IDs.
Anna Moyo of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum slammed the vindictive treatment the South African officials were meting to desperate immigrants and urged the authorities to immediately halt any deportations of exiles, especially Zimbabweans.
Amnesty International this week condemned the use of “excessive force” by the police in the manner they were forcibly removing Zimbabweans.
Post published in: News