adminSukulwenkosi Dube / Thupeyo Muleya Chronicle Correspondents
MORE than 30,000 Zimbabweans have been deported from neighbouring South Africa and Botswana this year, officials have said. A total of 14,450 Zimbabweans were deported from South Africa for violating that country’s immigration laws between January and the first two weeks of September, while 13,847 were deported from Botswana.
The acting immigration officer-in-charge of Beitbridge border post, Innocent Hamandishe, told the parliamentary thematic committee on peace and security on Monday that most of the deportees were from Limpopo and Gauteng provinces.
He said deportations from South Africa have been dropping due to the improved access to travel documents and a growing economy in the country.
Hamandishe said the immigrants were deported for reasons that include having no valid travel documents or overstaying.
“We’ve an average of 2,000 deportees per month. For instance we received 2,190 in June and 2,236 in August” he said.
Hamandishe said these were coming into the country by road via Beitbridge border post and were left at the Reception and Support Centre in the border town for further management.
The centre, which is manned by the Department of Social Services, has a holding capacity of 1,000 adults and 40 children.
“Those deported are assisted with food, counselling, medical checkups and information on safe migration processes, while others are issued with travelling warrants at their own volition” Hamandishe said.
He added that there was rampant human trafficking at the border especially on buses coming from South Africa and they were intercepting buses with illegal immigrants on a daily basis.
“We’ve tightened screws and deployed immigration security guards to all entry and exit points within the border post to reduce irregular migration.
“Those intercepted are made to pay fines for entry by evasion” said Hamandishe.
He said the department was working with other security agents to carry out random patrols along the borderline to reduce cases of illegal migration.
Hamandishe said they were also worried about the continued vandalism of the border perimeter fence by touts and illegal immigrants.
“We’ve enlisted the services of the police to patrol around the area so that we get rid of undesired people from the border area which is a security zone” he added.
Hamandishe said they were also intercepting other illegal immigrants from countries north of the Zambezi River who attempt to skip into South Africa via Beitbridge.
“These are sent to the courts for prosecution and are later deported to their respective countries” he said.
Meanwhile, officials at the Plumtree border post yesterday said they had received 13,847 illegal Zimbabwean immigrants from Botswana in the first eight months of this year, a 45 percent increase from the 9,500 deportees who were handled over the same period last year.
Addressing legislators on the state of affairs at the Plumtree Border Post yesterday, Assistant Regional Immigration Officer in charge of Plumtree Border Post, Nqobile Ncube, said a number of Zimbabweans insisted on travelling to Botswana without documentation.
“The increase in repatriations can be due to increased inland operations by Botswana authorities as we’ve a number of Zimbabweans travelling to seek employment in the neighbouring country without relevant documents,” said Ncube
He said during the whole of 2014, there had been 14,754 deportees that passed through the Plumtree Border Post.
Ncube said there was a need for legislators to consider decentralising passport application services by allowing district registry offices to accept applications and become possible collection points.
He said the border had recently experienced cases of foreign nationals who were trying to access the neighbouring country through illegal exit points after being denied asylum status.
He said the government should declare Plumtree Border Post a protected area, to contain criminal activities.
“We’ve a number of travellers attempting to enter or exit the country through illegal crossing points along the border which stretches for about 82 kilometres. There are also high cases of human smuggling perpetrated by omalayitsha,” said Ncube.
The officer commanding Bulilima-Mangwe District, Chief Superintendent Gideon Zulu, said smuggling activities were high at the border but the police were making great strides in apprehending the culprits.
He said a total of 64 kilogrammes of gold worth millions of dollars had been intercepted at the border while being smuggled into Botswana.
Plumtree Border Post Zimra Station Manager, Leonard Samembere, said there were a lot of cases of smuggling of fuel and electrical gadgets into the country as well as other restricted goods.
He said the smuggling was being done along the border line which made it difficult for culprits to be apprehended.
The chairperson of the parliamentary thematic committee on peace and security, Damian Mumvuri, who is also the Senator of Rushinga- Mt Darwin constituency, said the legislators had embarked on a tour of Beitbridge and Plumtree Border Posts in order to assess the performance of the two facilities.
He said the visit was prompted by complaints from travellers and rampant smuggling and border jumping activities.
Online Reporter