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Zim cops swoop on border towns
06/06/2007 11:46 - (SA)
Harare - Police in Zimbabwe have arrested close to 2 000 people, many of them border jumpers trying to escape Zimbabwe, in a blitz in two southern border towns, reports said on Wednesday.
The police operation, dubbed Border Clean-Up, saw a total of 1 936 people arrested in Plumtree and Beitbridge, on the Botswana and South African borders, the state-controlled Herald newspaper said.
Hundreds of suspected prostitutes were among those seized, according to the report.
"The operation has seen the arrest of 501 border jumpers, 188 touts, 605 prostitutes, 98 illegal vendors, 151 public drinkers and 393 illegal foreign currency dealers," the Herald said.
The arrests took place over one week. Most of those detained paid fines.
"The patrols are ongoing until all is well at these points," police spokesperson Tafanana Dzirutwe told the Herald.
Each month, thousands of Zimbabweans hazard the journey across Zimbabwe's borders, lured mainly to Botswana and South Africa by the prospect of wages in hard currency that can be sent back home to struggling families.
Zimbabwe's economic problems have caused an exodus of more than three million economically active people to countries like South Africa, Botswana and Britain. Many are there illegally.
Annual inflation is more than 3 714%. More than four million of the country's 12 million people will require food aid by early next year, UN food agencies said this week.
In January police here said that more than 100 000 Zimbabweans had been deported from South Africa in 2006, and more than 30 000 from Botswana. - Sapa-dpa
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