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Immigrants fight to make SA home

JOHANNESBURG 1 September 2005 Sapa

IMMIGRANTS FIGHT TO MAKE SA HOME

A Zimbabwean fruit seller watches a group of Nigerian men play a game of soccer on a street in the Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow as a police van drives by.

The police hardly seem to notice the men as they drive down the street of the area that is known as "Little Plumstead", after a town in Zimbabwe.

A Zimbabwean woman, who is standing nearby laughs when asked if the police ever harass her. "Sometimes they come for us, but mostly they go for the ones in the suburbs after they have finished work
because they know that they have money then."

"Money for what?" she is asked. "Money for bribes," she replies.

The woman, named Zennie Ngwenya, is a tall and handsome
Matabele.

"The Nigerians always stick in groups," she says.

"You never see a Nigerian on his own. It's clever maybe, because
then the totsis can't get them and the police struggle to arrest
them."

It is a cool first day of spring and Hillbrow feels relaxed and
happy. It is the perfect time for a photograph A man wearing a
brown jacket threatens to shoot if he is not given the camera.

The man and his accomplice sprint down the street as a police
van drifts by.

"He was a Zimbabwean, I can tell from his accent," Ngwenya says.
"People are desperate now, so they will steal."

Cities around South Africa especially the financial capital,
Johannesburg, have become homes for immigrants mostly from Africa,
who want to escape poverty and conflict in their countries.

Many work as gardeners and domestic workers. Some get jobs as
carpenters and security guards. Others, driven by despair, become
criminals.

But while the police in Hillbrow seem unperturbed by the
Nigerians and Zimbabwean, illegal immigrants are often arrested and
sent to the Lindela Repatriation Centre, 40km north west of
Johannesburg.

Lindela, which can hold about 2000 deportees, is South Africa's
only deportation centre for illegal immigrants.

It was opened in April 1997 and is built on a site that was
first used as a hostel for Chinese migrants who came to mine
Johannesburg's gold fields more than 100 years ago.

In the eight and half years Lindela has been open, some 600,000
illegal immigrants are said to have passed though its gates.

But the centre has had its share of criticism recently. Last
week three senior officials were suspended at the camp after the
death of two detainees.

A Lindela official denies any wrongdoing and says the immigrants
died of natural causes. Many terminally ill people are sent to the
facility and have to be admitted to the nearby Leratong Hospital,
he says.

A recent article by a Johannesburg newspaper said that seven
Zimbabwean clergymen who visited Lindela described the facility as
a "torture chamber".

A Zimbabwean woman, who spent a night at Lindela, complained
that she had to pay a bribe to be let out, even though she had
South African citizenship documents.

Joe Gumede, a director at Lindela, says officials do not take
bribes.

"Maybe in the past, but if anyone is caught taking a bribe they
will be fired," he says.

On a tour of the facility, there are no visible signs of
maltreatment of the detainees.

The immigrants are served three solid meals a day, usually
porridge for breakfast and then chicken and potatoes or mince meat
for lunch and dinner. Fruit is served with all meals.

The facility is very clean and smells of disinfectant. There are
television sets and clean bathrooms.

Detainees are given a clean mattress and a blanket when they
arrive.

There is also a resident doctor, who operates a very organised
medicine dispensary. Outside the dispensary there is a short line
of immigrants who have come for vitamins and headache tablets.

It costs R59.58 a day to hold an immigrant at Lindela.

Many of the immigrants complain about bureaucracy and that their
time is being wasted, but when asked they do not have any other
complaints.

"You need a facility like this. It is important for human
rights," says Home Affairs spokesman Leslie Mashokwe.

"Before the immigrants would be put in normal jails."

Mashokwe says Lindela does not accept pregnant women, minors or
people who are very ill.

"We tell the police to take them back to where they came from,"
he says.

Immigrants should not stay at Lindela for more than 30 days.

"Often we have no choice because the immigrants give us false
names or lie to us about where they come from. We also have to wait
for representatives from embassies to identify people from their
country. This can take time"

Some detainees from far away are flown back to their countries,
but others, mostly from Mozambique and Zimbabwe are taken back by
train.

Mashokwe says many manage to jump out of the train while it is
moving.

"By the time it gets to Zimbabwe or Mozambique, it is often half
full," he says.

Mashokwe says it is impossible to effectively police South
Africa's 8000km of borders.

"Our borders are very porous. Many of these guys will swim
through rivers infested with crocodiles to get here. They are very
determined. The only way to stop illegal immigrants is to encourage
investment in African countries and for that you need peace and
stability."

Another way to decrease the numbers of illegals is to sign visa
agreements.

The number of Mozambicans at Lindela has dropped in recent
months since the signing of a visa agreement. But this is said to
be a long way off, especially with regard to Zimbabwe which is in
economic and political turmoil.

Bertus Swanvelder, a unit leader at Lindela, says many of the
detainees have amazing stories of how they got to South Africa.

"Some tell us stories of how they were charged by elephants and
attacked by lions as they came across Kruger National Park," he
says.

"The come in a group of 50 but only 15 survive. They have
amazing stories. It breaks your heart sometimes."

But it is not just Africans, who are held at Lindela.

Nelson Ancco from Peru, was sent to Lindela after serving seven
years in prison for smuggling cocaine into Johannesburg.

Ancco, 33, struggles to speak English but is fluent in Zulu and
Afrikaans which he learned in prison in Johannesburg.

"I have a wife who has left me for another man, which I
understand. But I cannot wait to see my four children," he says.

Annco has been at Lindela for one month. He is waiting for the
Peruvian embassy to identify him and clear the way for his return.

Lindela's spokesman, Papa Leshababe, said many immigrants do not
want to go home when their time comes.

"Some people have to go back to countries where there is
conflict and shortages of food," he says.

"When their time to go comes we call them over the intercom, but
they hide away."