admin“We have so far handled 14 932 deportees coming into the country through Beitbridge Border Post since the exercise resumed on 7 October last year. Between 1 January and 2 March, 7 177 Zimbabweans were brought back home,” said Mr Gwede.
The first batch of 261 deportees was brought in from Johannesburg in four buses under the escort of SA Home Affairs officials on 7 October.
The largest number of deportations was recorded on 5 December last year when 672 Zimbabweans were rounded up in Limpopo and Gauteng provinces.
However, the highest figure of Zimbabweans deported from South Africa was on 13 February in 2007 when 1 600 people were brought in a convoy of 16 buses.
On arrival in the country, the returnees are received by the immigration authorities at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Beitbridge Reception and Support Centre (BRSC) who vet them to ascertain whether they are bona fide Zimbabweans.
Soon after that process, IOM offers the deportees overnight accommodation, medication, food and transport to proceed to their homes.
However, some of the deportees turn down any form of assistance from the IOM and those who opt to go home using their own means are released, but a majority of them cross back to South Africa illegally through undesignated entry points along the crocodile infested Limpopo River despite the dangers of being attacked by the deadly reptiles or robbers operating in bushy areas near the river.
Mr Gwede warned people against irregular migration as they risked their lives and prosecution.
He said most people repatriated were from Lindelani Holding Centre. The deportations marked the end of an amnesty for illegal Zimbabwean immigrants staying in South Africa that ran from 5 May 2009 to 31 July this year.
IOM spokesperson Mr Knowledge Mareyanadzo yesterday said his organisation has so far assisted 12 708 returnees with transport to travel to their homes.
The IOM BRSC has the capacity to accommodate 600 people at any given time.
“The total number of returned migrants that we have assisted since the resumption of deportations on 7 October is 12 708 of which 10 990 were males while 1 718 were females,” said Mr Mareyanadzo.
Since the deportations started, the Department of Immigration at Beitbridge Border Post has been receiving an average of 80 people a day on less busy days with the number increasing to more than 300 mostly on Wednesdays and Thursdays when those from Lindela detention centre in Johannesburg would have been cleared for new arrivals.
Deportations are only conducted between Monday and Friday.
More than 275 000 applications from Zimbabweans wishing to regularise their stay in the neighbouring country have been processed while several others were turned down and some are pending.
Online Reporter