Asylum seekers and refugees detained at the Lindela repatriation centre following their removal from Johannesburg’s Glenanda camp on Tuesday should not be deported, Lawyers for Human Rights said on Wednesday.
Spokesperson Jacob van Garderen said his organisation has sent a team of lawyers to the detention centre to help those who believe they have been unlawfully detained.
”Valid asylum seekers and refugees should be released immediately,” he said.
”If they are deported, this contravenes the law that does not allow for their detention unless they have contravened the conditions of their permits,” Van Garderen said.
He said their permits allow for freedom of movement, which is now being denied. He has received reports that the detainees have no access to food and water at Lindela.
Garderen complained that lawyers and NGOs were not allowed access to the refugees when they were at the camp.
Meanwhile, the Coordinating Body for Refugee Communities said it deplored the manner in which the residents of the camp had been ”bundled” to the detention centre.
”It is really a sad situation. The process of dealing with the people was inhumane,” spokesperson Dosso Ndessomin said.
He said most of the displaced people were confused about and reluctant to sign up for the Department of Home Affairs’s temporary identification cards.
”They were uncertain about the IDs and were told conflicting information about what their status would be,” Ndessomin said.
In terms of a government arrangement, residents at the camp who could not produce documents were invited to register their details in exchange for being allowed to stay in the country for six months.
Some residents feared that this would cancel existing agreements with the Department of Home Affairs that secured their right to be in the country.
Gauteng provincial government spokesperson Thabo Masebe said about 798 people were taken to Lindela on Tuesday, leaving approximately 900 people at the Glenanda camp.
During a spate of attacks linked to xenophobia that left more than 60 people dead, thousands of people displaced by the violence sought refuge at police stations and community centres, many losing all their possessions and documentation during the attacks.
In response, displacement centres were opened to provide temporary shelter. The government is currently winding down operations at the centres and reintegrating people into their home communities.
Masebe said officials will check the immigration status of people moved to Lindela. ”If they are found to be in South Africa legally, based on documentation that can be authenticated, they will be free to remain in the country.”
He said records of authentic documents destroyed in the attacks can be traced. ”They will be in the system.”
Department of Home Affairs spokesperson Cleo Mosana said she would provide further information after a fact-gathering visit to the centre outside Randfontein on the West Rand on Wednesday. — Sapa