Illegal migrant workers are frequently assaulted and subject to extortion by South African officials involved in their arrest and deportation, a leading rights group said in a report on Wednesday.
The study by New York-based Human Rights Watch also accused South African farmers who employed the migrants of taking advantage of their clandestine status and routinely breaching basic labour laws even of legal workers.
”Police, immigration officials and military border patrols in South Africa often seriously abuse undocumented migrants when they arrest them,” said HRW’s deputy Africa director Georgette Gagnon.
”Undocumented migrants awaiting deportation are locked up with criminal suspects or even convicts, while migrant children are often held alongside adults.”
The report said that the abuses by officials were in violation of South Africa’s immigration laws as well as its obligations under the terms of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
HRW said that migrants from neighbouring Zimbabwe were particularly vulnerable because many did not have proper documentation.
More than two million Zimbabweans are thought to have crossed the border into Africa’s economic powerhouse following the virtual meltdown of their economy. Around 80% of the Zimbabwean population is unemployed.
The report detailed allegations by some Zimbabweans that they had been assaulted by police on deportation trains who had also extorted money from them. – Sapa-AFP