More Zimbabwean immigrants arrested in South Africa

By Tichaona Sibanda
09 January 2006

Lawyers for human rights were on Monday expected to file an urgent High court application in Johannesburg, South Africa seeking to stop all mass deportations to Zimbabwe.

The militant pressure group, the Zimbabwe Action Support Group, worried at the arbitrary arrest and detention of many Zimbabweans described The South African government’s actions towards immigrants as ‘total disrespect for human rights’
A spokesman, Rodgers Mudarikwa, questioned the wisdom of the authorities in deporting thousands of refugees to Zimbabwe, so soon after the African Commission on human rights castigated the Harare regime’s poor human rights record.
Mudarikwa said: ‘What the South African government is basically doing is sending lambs to the slaughter.’
Over the weekend police and members of the South African Defence Force who are manning roadblocks in and around Makhado in Limpopo, arrested more than 1 000 illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe.
Authorities in Pretoria said the number of people sneaking into the country through the Beitbridge border post has increased since the start of the new year.
About 6 000 illegal immigrants have been deported to Zimbabwe in just over 7 days, many being pregnant women who wish to give birth in South Africa so that they receive social grants for their children.