SA Migration International

News Articles

Closing the ‘holes’ in porous borders requires co-operation

Source: iol, 11/12/2023

This past week, local and global media outlets reported on South Africa’s Border Management Authority (BMA) intercepting buses transporting some 443 unaccompanied children at the Beitbridge crossing on the border with Zimbabwe.

South Africa’s borders have become notorious for being open and unprotected.

Criminals have, for some time, been doing as they please, with regular reports of illegal migrants from countries as far as Ethiopia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and others walking into South Africa unchecked. Up to now, the criminal incidents have involved only foreign men.

There have also been cases where criminals have been caught smuggling stolen luxury cars from South Africa to countries such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Others, such as Prophet Shepherd Bushiri from Malawi, have used South Africa’s porous borders to evade justice in South Africa. Bushiri is enjoying himself in Malawi under the protection of his country.

It is the first time that trafficking of children has featured on this massive scale in South Africa.

Indeed, the interception of these children might signal at least one of two things:

*Criminals are becoming more daring as they feel they own South Africa’s borders and can escalate human trafficking to new more dangerous levels targeting children.

*The work of the BMA is gathering momentum as the agency is becoming better at preventing and detecting cross-border criminality. Either way, it is good news to see the BMA appearing to be taking its work seriously and keeping the South African public up to date.

Perhaps there is a need to delve deeper into the story of the 443 children to establish the truth about their origins, identity and parentage. According to some reports, the children were carried in 42 buses originating from Zimbabwe, a neighbouring country.

It is thought that the children might have been placed in the buses to come to South Africa to join relatives during the festive season. It is, however, difficult to understand how the parents or relatives came to take the security of their children for granted. Indeed, when travelling within South Africa, there are strict procedures for transporting children in public transport locally and over long distances.

A verifiable identity and contact details of the parents or guardian are a primary requirement. In this case it appears this was not the case. It would appear the children were discovered by the BMA but were allowed passage by the Zimbabwean side.

All this suggests that the BMA is single-handedly dealing with border problems without the co-operation of the Zimbabwean side. If this is the case, it suggests that the BMA will, in the long run, struggle to control our borders if its efforts are undermined by neighbouring countries.

It is difficult to imagine that the Zimbabweans do not care about the physical security of their children. However, if they do care, it is perhaps likely that smuggling people, including Zimbabwean children, adults and goods, across the border has become a big criminal enterprise.

The criminal nature of the enterprise appears to thrive on the most vulnerable people among Zimbabweans, people who, perhaps out of ignorance, find themselves taken advantage of and are misled to undertake risky journeys out of their country.

It would be a welcome development if the BMA were to issue regular detailed reports of the big cross-border cases to expose the identity of the criminals, in particular the bus operators and their partners in crime. Public reports of this nature are useful because they go beyond meeting the needs to back up court cases in the respective countries. They also serve to inform a wider debate of the nature of cross-border criminals and what to do to prevent it harming the interests of neighbouring countries.

There is an urgent need to gauge the scale of cross-border criminality and the extent to which human trafficking is involved.

It is extremely concerning that there appears to be no established cross-border policing procedures and protocols in the countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) community.

Without cross-border policing, and related activities to ensure co-operation on a regionwide justice system, it is small wonder the SADC is hardly worth the paper it is written on. The value of cross-border policing is primarily to prevent the use of borders as a haven for criminals operating in the neighbouring countries.

There is, however, a cost associated with all policing and execution of justice. It appears each country suffers its own financial pain silently but there is no sharing of the criminal cost burden.

The presence of many foreign nationals in South Africa, including many Zimbabweans, is not matched by similar numbers of South Africans residing in neighbouring countries. This means that South Africa is single-handedly carrying the burden of SADC policing and justice. Indeed, the fact that the BMA took responsibility for identifying unaccompanied children in buses from Zimbabwe underscores this point.

The cost of immigration, whether legal or not, to South Africa is huge and is probably rising. If this is the case, it is highly likely that the sustainability of agencies such as the BMA, SAPS and others will, in time, fall because of escalating costs. As we all know, the revenue base of the South African government is also in decline because of declining national productivity, a consequence of the unrelenting electricity crisis that remains with us.

In fact, if we add the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, the economy requires extreme drastic measure to be in reasonable shape. Investing is reducing regional SADC-wide cross-border criminality is definitely one such priority to achieve economic recovery.

*Prof Majuqwana is a founding member of the National Union of Scientists and Engineers

**The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Independent Media or IOL

Search

Latest News

Due to system downtime and load-shedding, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) lost nearly 141,000 hours of Smart ID application and production time between the 2019/20 and 2022/23 financial years. Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed this figure in a recent response to questions raised in Parliament by Democratic Alliance MP Adrian Roos. Motsoaledi provided a breakdown of smart ID production and application hours lost to technical difficulties and load-shedding per province for each financial year from 2019/2020. These disruptions hit home Affairs offices in the Eastern Cape the hardest, with over 34,000 hours to rotational power cuts and system downtime. Mpumalanga offices lost the next-highest number of hours at 17... Read more...

In recent years, South Africa has seen a significant influx of immigrants from various African countries, as well as other parts of the world. This has raised important questions about the country`s immigration policies and their impact on job creation for both locals and immigrants. The South African immigration system, like many other countries, is a complex and ever-evolving process that aims to balance the country`s economic needs with its social and cultural interests. Let`s take a closer look at how this system intersects with job creation in South Africa. The South African government implemented the Immigration Act of 2002, which outlines the country`s immigration policies and procedures. Under this act, foreigners are required to obtain a visa or permit to enter, work, or study in South Africa. The type of visa or permit required depends on the intended purpose of the individual`s visit and their country of origin.... Read more...

The DA has been inundated with complaints that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) systems are offline, resulting in long queues and delayed processing of documents. Through questions posed to the Minister, the DA can now reveal that the DHA has lost over 77 years’ worth of working hours due to system downtime and load-shedding from 2019 to date. Concerningly, this data only relates to hours lost for the application of smart IDs, meaning decades more of working hours could have been additionally lost in other spheres such as passport or visa applications. The lost hours are largely due to system downtime, surpassing load-shedding. In the 2022/2023 financial year, where we experienced extensive load-shedding, system downtime was the cause of 41 691 hours lost (17 years), whereas load-shedding caused around 9 322 hours lost (4 years) at DHA civic offices on the production of smart IDs.... Read more...

JOHANNESBURG - Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi said that while the White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection had been gazetted, there were amendments that needed to be made to the legislation before it could be passed into law. The White Paper is proposing an overhaul of the country`s migration laws, with the aim of tightening rules around allowing migrants into the country.... Read more...

Highly skilled professionals are leaving South Africa to move to other countries, while the local economy faces a skills shortage. Data from The Outlier revealed that there were just over 900,000 South Africans living abroad in 2020. This number has increased steadily over the past 20 years, from 500,000 in 2000, according to Stats SA’s Migration Profile Report for South Africa 2023. Of these 900,000 people, 7 out of 10 are living in either Europe or Oceania. In particular, Australia and New Zealand have seen a large growth in South African residents. In 2020, around 273,000 South Africans were living in those two countries, more than double the 106,000 who lived there in 2000. The UK remains still the top destination for South Africans who leave the country.... Read more...

Document proposes overhauling the Citizenship Act, the Refugees Act and the Immigration Act and a review of the international treaty on refugee protection Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the cabinet has approved a white paper overhauling the country’s immigration laws after “robust engagements” that resulted in “wide support” of the document’s policy positions.... Read more...

Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s indifference to the plight of those affected by his decisions is appalling In the tumultuous seas of immigration law, where uncertainty looms and families are left adrift in bureaucratic limbo, the department of home affairs has emerged as a sinking ship. As a director of a firm of immigration attorneys I’ve witnessed first-hand the dire consequences of the department’s negligence and incompetence. Today, I raise my voice not just as an attorney but as a concerned citizen, urging for a radical overhaul to salvage what remains of our immigration system. We have tirelessly fought battles in the courtroom against home affairs’ disregard for agreed-upon time frames. Countless cases have landed on our desks, each one a testament to the systemic failures plaguing the department. We’ve seen cases where contempt applications were the only recourse, as the department brazenly ignored court orders.... Read more...

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has said the public has shown great support for the final White Paper on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection which appeared in the Government Gazette on Wednesday. Briefing the media, he addressed what he saw as a long-overdue need to replace an outdated Citizenship Act, as well as enact proposed changes to existing legislation.... Read more...

The Department of Home Affairs is going through a torrid time. As The South African reported earlier this year, naturalised South Africans are being refused smart ID cards. This is despite having the same constitutional rights as every other South African citizen. Now, Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has decided to clarify the reasons behind lengthy delays for spousal visas.Business Tech reports that some spousal (and relatives) visas are taking up to two years to process. The minister of Home Affairs says this is because documentation and claims need to be verified. Replying to a parliamentary Q&A session, the minister says the issue is being addressed by the Home Affairs ‘Backlog Eradication Plan’.... Read more...

outh Africa seeks highly skilled individuals to live and work in SA. SA Migration Services will provide professional assistance to arrange your work visa for you if you qualify. Work Visas are regulated in terms of Section 19, Regulation 18 and items 18 (1), 19(2), 20, 21 and 22, of Schedule A.... Read more...