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DA: 1 000 Zim refugees a day
24/07/2007 16:14 - (SA)
Cape Town - Zimbabwean refugees are fleeing into South Africa at the rate of 1 000 a day on one Limpopo farm alone, the Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday.
"Yesterday (on Monday), the DA concluded a visit to the Beit Bridge border post and discovered that, on one farm alone, about 1 000 new refugees are fleeing illegally into South Africa every day," DA Home Affairs spokesperson Mark Lowe said.
This was in addition to the 6 000 legal Zimbabwe immigrants entering the country.
"Some estimates put the total number at 10 000 a day," he said.
'Enormous numbers of refugees'
The DA had written to the SA Human Rights Commission, asking it to look into the Zimbabwean refugee crisis.
This followed the DA's asking Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to consider setting up refugee camps close to the border, a request she refused.
"The minister's spokesperson, Cleo Mosana, declined the request, stating that the refugees should be integrated into South African communities.
"Ms Mosana neglected to mention which communities would be able to handle enormous numbers of refugees, with no money, no shelter and no clothing except that which they are wearing," Lowe said.
The refugee situation was set to worsen at the end of this month when the Zimbabwean government enacted legislation stopping people from bringing goods across the border.
"I challenge the minister to visit the border and see for herself what real human suffering looks like. "Perhaps then she will abide by her constitutional duty to apply the provisions of the Refugees Act, and set up a place of safety for the desperate refugees that are coming to us for help."
Lowe said he would raise the matter in Parliament.
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