The extent of illegal border crossings from Zimbabwe into South Africa has been exaggerated, according to a migration-studies report released on Tuesday.
The report, by the Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP) and Musina Legal Aid office, said: ”Recent statements by officials and media reports exaggerated the numbers of Zimbabweans moving across into South Africa or already in the country.”
The report said journalists were often hard-pressed to supply figures, but that even the South African government ”did not possess a reliable estimate” of how many foreigners were in the country — including Zimbabweans.
”Although perhaps best encapsulated in the common reference to the provocative image of a Zimbabwean ‘Human Tsunami’, these claims also involved numeric speculation,” the report continued
Presenting the report at Johannesburg’s Wits University, the FMSP’s Darshan Vigneswaran said Zimbabweans crossing the border was not a new phenomenon, but conceded that during the past few years there had been increased movements.
”Recently this situation has been transformed into a sense of a crisis,” he said. He said conflicts with farmers and the intervention of the Democratic Alliance into this debate had brought the issue to the fore.
”I think mostly because of the pressure upon many media reporters to attach a number to the quite dynamic phenomena that they witness, we see almost any number given credence in a number of different [media] reports,” he said.
There were also concerns that the media did not cite sources of figures or compare them.
While the report gave no indication of what the figures were, it said authorities had been ”ramping up their response to informal movement” along South Africa’s Zimbabwean border.
This included increased police and army patrols since December 2006.
The report findings also indicated that there was little evidence to suggest that the informal crossing had led to an increase in crime in the border areas.
Claims by the Department of Home Affairs that none of the Zimbabweans coming to South Africa were bona fide asylum seekers were inaccurate, the report said.
It also cited serious concerns that Zimbabweans who were crossing into South Africa faced ”mistreatment” at the hands of smugglers.
Vigneswaran said there were concerns about the exploitation of migrants, including migrant farm workers, some of whom battled to claim their wages.
The research followed a review of media reports made between June and August 2007.
Two teams of experienced migration researchers went to Limpopo province during the latter half of August.
The FMSP is a non-profit centre for research on migration, aid and social transformation, based at the university. — Sapa