Courts stop deportation of immigrants in South Africa

SOUTH AFRICA – Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) have discovered that some of their clients that were at the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Johannesburg’s West Rand have been deported despite legal consultations still being in progress.

This led LHR to turn to the court to prevent premature deportations from occurring again.

Migrants rights programme manager, Patricia Erasmus, said approximately 10 of the over 200 clients detained following government’s controversial “Operation Fiela Reclaim”, had been deported after LHR’s two-week access to the facility expired late last month.

Erasmus said access was granted following the raids in downtown Johannesburg early last month. LHR began consultations on May 12.

“It was as if they just waited for the previous court order to expire, even though we sent a letter of demand not to deport them [the migrants].”

She explained consultations occurred at a slow pace due to delays lawyers experienced in gaining access to their clients at the facility.

“There were restrictions placed on staff at the facility. When we asked to see our clients, we were told they were busy eating … but for half a day?”

The South Gauteng High Court Thursday granted the lawyers access and prevented any further deportations by Home Affairs until work has been completed.

It further stated any letter of demand resulted in a two-week stay. A total of 38 people are now left to be consulted, said Erasmus. The gist of the allegations is that detainees were unlawfully denied opportunity to get their documents when the raids were conducted, she said.

“They were forced to leave the children and [their] homes. We are also told there were members of the army, Home Affairs and police [present] during the raids.”

Home Affairs spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete said: “We are only given a certain amount of time to deport someone. We can’t keep people at Lindela indefinitely, in as much as they (LHR) want to consult forever. It was not so long ago that the same people said we were keeping people indefinitely at Lindela.

“So damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” he said. The Citizen