Call to close Lindela centre

2008-11-18 18:08

Johannesburg - The Coalition Against Xenophobia (CAX) on Tuesday called for the closure of the Lindela Repatriation Centre, 30km outside Johannesburg.

CAX claimed that the human rights of those awaiting to be deported at the centre were being violated.

"Detainees are deprived of basics such as food and blankets at Lindela. They are constantly assaulted, some died and their deaths were not reported to the authorities," CAX's Kenneth Tafira told journalists in Johannesburg, ahead of a planned 24-hour picket outside the centre, to begin at noon on Friday.

Tafira called to the South African government to open borders to African immigrants, saying nobody was in the country illegally because borders were created by European colonisers.

"We demand free movement of all the people across the continent and abolition of the restrictive borders."

He said immigrants were coming to South Africa to improve their lives after having fled persecution and political unrest in their countries. Tafira said centres like Lindela were not a humane way of dealing with those who sought refuge in the country.

CAX demanded that those currently in Lindela be integrated into their communities, where they belonged, while the government sorted out their papers.

'White immigrants not detained'

CAX's Stephen Muchaka said South African policies on immigrants were racist and xenophobic because white immigrants were not detained in Lindela.

"They call them [whites] investors and we [African immigrants] are called criminals," he said.

Muchaka said while South Africa had a serious shortage of skills it had never done a survey to check whether the illegal immigrants in the country could provide those needed skills.

"We demand an end to the government's racist and xenophobic immigrants' policies."

Muchaka said it was very difficult for a foreigner to get a work permit in South Africa.

"Unless you pay the officials then you will [not] get it, but only a few are given it legally."

CAX demanded the government deal with corrupt policemen and home affairs officials, saying that black foreigners were constantly harassed for money, abused and arrested by the police.

The organisation also called on government to provide viable and effective measures to address poverty, unemployment and lack of social services.

"If government had addressed... poverty and unemployment, we wouldn't have experienced the xenophobic attacks that we saw in May," Muchaka said.

- SAPA