South Africa has deported about 200 illegal Zimbabweans by chartered plane this week, an official said, in a move believed to have been prompted by the unavailability of bus and rail transport over the festive season.
”We have deported more than 200 yesterday [Tuesday] by chartered flight,” said Home Affairs Department spokesperson Nkosana Sibuyi.
”As we could not deport them by bus or by train we put them on a flight, which we do from time to time,” he told Agence France Presse, but did not give reasons why air, rather than bus and rail transport was being used.
South Africa deports between 600 and 6 000 Zimbabweans every week from the Lindela repatriation centre west of Johannesburg, with the country being the destination of choice for illegal Zimbabwean who number around two million, according to unofficial estimates.
In Harare, state radio reported the group consisting of mainly women and children, were deported for allegedly breaching immigration laws and arrived at Harare International Airport late on Tuesday.
They entered South Africa without visas and some did not have passports.
Normally deportation would take place by road or rail, the report said, quoting Zimbabwean embassy officials in Pretoria.
The officials said they believed that trains and buses with full of holiday makers travelling to and from Zimbabwe during the Christmas season.
President Thabo Mbeki’s government has admitted that it was fighting a losing battle against the influx of Zimbabweans fleeing poverty and repression in their homeland, with many deportees returning within weeks. – Sapa-AFP