|
Back to Index
Unprotected
Migrants: Zimbabweans in South Africa's Limpopo Province
Human
Rights Watch
August 08, 2006
http://hrw.org/reports/2006/southafrica0806/3.htm#_Toc142188100
Download
this document
- Acrobat
PDF version (459KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader
on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking
here.
Summary
Foreign African migrants in South Africa, whether documented or
undocumented, are vulnerable. The situation of Zimbabweans in Limpopo
province shows two aspects of the problem. If undocumented, a Zimbabwean
migrant is liable to be arrested, detained, and deported under conditions
that flout South Africa's Immigration Act. And documented
or not, farm workers on commercial farms are subject to their employers
violating basic employment law protections.
The Immigration Act is
routinely violated. When apprehending suspected undocumented foreigners,
police and immigration officials fail to verify their status and
identity, and police and military personnel assault and extort money
from foreign migrants. Immigration officers also detain undocumented
foreigners for more than 30 days without pursuing proper procedures,
and detention conditions do not meet prescribed standards. The immigration
law makes no provision for migrant workers facing deportation to
collect their unpaid wages and transfer their earnings, savings,
and personal belongings.
With respect to labor
laws, farmers openly disregard the minimum wage, sometimes use a
piece rate system rather than the hours of work to calculate remuneration,
and make unlawful deductions from workers' wages. The prescribed
basic conditions of employment for farm workers create disincentives
for employers to provide housing for workers. Though migrant workers
are legally entitled to workers' compensation, there are obstacles
to them receiving compensation settlements. Documented Zimbabwean
farm workers who worked under South African farm supervisors complained
of discriminatory treatment.
The violations of immigration
and employment laws, and deficiencies in these laws, result in the
infringement on rights that migrants should enjoy under the Constitution
of South Africa. These rights include, among others, the right to
personal freedom and security, and to conditions of detention that
are consistent with human dignity and privacy. The failure to protect
the constitutional rights of migrants also frequently violates the
Government of South Africa's international obligations under
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The constitution also protects the rights of at least documented
migrants to fair labor practices.
Human Rights Watch calls
on the Government of South Africa to amend the immigration law by
inserting provisions to protect migrants against arrest and deportation
when their illegal status is due to bureaucratic deficiencies in
providing workers' documentation in a timely fashion. The
government is urged to become a party to the International Convention
on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members
of Their Families and to incorporate its provisions in the Immigration
Act.
The government should
also enforce compliance with its immigration and labor laws. The
government should ensure that the procedures for arrest, detention,
and deportation in its immigration law are enforced. It should also
create a system that permits migrants to report human rights abuses
they have experienced; hire more labor inspectors; train immigration
and police officials to adhere to the law; and investigate and punish
those officials who violate the law. The government should remove
obstacles from the relevant law to enable migrant workers to receive
the workers' compensation to which they are legally entitled.
Human Rights Watch calls on the government to offset the legal disincentives
for farmers to provide housing by developing a housing policy for
farm workers.
The government needs
to rapidly devise a housing policy for farm workers if it is to
meet its constitutional obligations, which were endorsed in 2000
by the Constitutional Court, to progressively realize the provision
of adequate housing for everyone. To what extent "everyone"
will include migrants will likely depend on future adjudication.
Human Rights Watch also urges the Government of South Africa to
address the specific situation of undocumented Zimbabwean migrants
in South Africa by devising a comprehensive policy to address the
lack of status of this large group.
The report is based on
a Human Rights Watch mission to Limpopo province in April and May
2006. Because of the historical predominance of Zimbabwean migrants
on farms in the far north of Limpopo province and the increasing
numbers of Zimbabwean migrants fleeing the deteriorating political
and economic situation in Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch focused its
research on Limpopo. Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with
farmers and farm workers north of the Soutpansberg around Weipe
and Tshipise, and south of the Soutpansberg around Levubu and Vivo,
to learn about migrants' status and employment conditions.
Human Rights Watch's interviews with police, Zimbabwean migrants
awaiting deportation, and undocumented Zimbabwean migrants, usually
walking on the road en route to Johannesburg, provided information
on the process of arrest, detention, and deportation of illegal
foreigners. Human Rights Watch also conducted interviews with lawyers
(invariably farmers themselves) who advised other farmers on compliance
with the immigration law. In Johannesburg and Cape Town we spoke
to scholars of migration at Forced Migration Studies Programme,
Lawyers for Human Rights, and Southern African Migration Project;
nongovernmental organizations that provide services for Zimbabwean
migrants (for example Southern Africa Women's Migration Association,
and Zimbabwe Torture Victims/Survivors Project); and an activist
organization, Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum.
The names of
farmers, farms, and migrants are not used to protect the security
of individuals concerned.
Download full document
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
