Porous borders undermine SA’s deportation drive | The Citizen

Many South Africans feel that deporting illegal immigrants without securing the border is a fruitless exercise if they can simply re-enter through the same porous boundary.

Yesterday, another March and March protest took place in Pretoria West, with a group marching to Hercules polices station to demand police intervene regarding the undocumented immigrants at nearby Gomora informal settlement.

Meanwhile, the Tshwane Metro Police Department arrested 48 undocumented foreign nationals during bylaw enforcement operations on Wednesday in Pretoria North, Centurion, Sinoville and Cullinan.

Also on Wednesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa launched South Africa’s Electronic Travel Authorisation at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.

The digital platform has already rejected 6 126 fraudulent applications and processed 216 000 applications.

Political expert Piet Croucamp says South Africa doesn’t have the political will to build a wall like US President Donald Trump has built between Mexico and the US.

“There’s a stigma to a wall. We certainly won’t build a wall, but we might use the private sector to patrol parts of the border with drones. However, we have about 3 700km of direct border, not even adding Swaziland or Lesotho. But it’s not possible. We don’t have the capital or resources to control the people moving from the north to South Africa,” he said.

Croucamp said controlling the movement of foreigners inside SA would improve the situation.

“There are already foreigners who left a couple of months ago and made it back again. They know the ropes and how to get in, the right people to bribe and where the weakness is in the border patrol system,” he said.

Earlier this week, the portfolio committee on home affairs called on the department of home affairs and of international relations and cooperation to intensify consultations with countries whose nationals have been repatriated or deported from South Africa to ensure that the costs incurred by the South African government are shared.

During a meeting with home affairs and the Border Management Authority (BMA), the committee heard that the department had incurred R292 million costs associated with the repatriation and deportation of foreign nationals.

This included R203.50 million for buses, R48 million to establish a temporary repatriation centre in Musina, and R4 million in overtime pay for officials involved in the process.

Chair of the portfolio committee on home affairs Mosa Chabane said the financial burden should not be borne by the department alone.

He also highlighted the committee’s concern that the BMA was unable to fund basic border management.

“The continued underfunding of the BMA is a concern, especially because the authority cannot fund the most basic operational activities, including buying batteries for the drones they utilise to monitor activities at the ports of entry and along the border fence,” he said.

The Malawi government says it has facilitated the return of 56 723 Malawians.