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This is Home Affairs' very own slum
Justine Gerardy, The Star (SA)
February 09, 2008

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4245956

Legal asylum-seekers are living in filthy slums as they wait . . . and wait.
In direct view of South Africa's busiest refugee centre is an open-air slum. A waiting ground of small cooking fires, lines of washing and awkward shelters. There are no toilets, no running water and no fixed shelter. When it rains, the veld turns into mud.

No one wants to be on this squalid patch of ground opposite the Home Affairs' Marabastad office in Pretoria - not even those who have fled civil war. But this is where asylum-seekers wait to apply for temporary residence permits by following the official steps to claim refugee status. For some, it has been months.

Manuel Eusebio* (42) is in South Africa for the second time in six weeks, after he was arrested, detained for 17 days and deported. He spent one-and-a-half days in Zimbabwe, then crossed back into South Africa.

"To come to this country was not our wish. We should be at home," he said this week. "There is no shelter, no water or even a public toilet here. You can see the government isn't interested in our lives."

After two months, Mojanetta Gonzo* (28) finally has an interview date for February 18. Money brought from Zimbabwe ran out a long time ago, and Gonzo has resigned herself to the fact that a metre-high plastic sheet and scavenged wood structure will be home until she gets a job.

Most foreigners living at Marabastad said they're too scared to move 100 metres beyond the Home Affairs building. The refugee office issues no documents that acknowledge attempts to enter the grossly backlogged system. Instead, asylum-seekers are given undocumented dates to return.

But despite the grim conditions, buying easily obtainable fake papers or chancing it on the streets are not options. Going home is out of the question as, inconceivably, things are worse.

Most people have no idea of what it means to seek asylum, said Dr Emmanuel Nyakarishi of the Refugee Ministries Centre. "People don't just wake up and go. There must be a compelling reason to leave. The moment you take flight, you don't only lose your possessions, you lose your identity. Many people had high status in their countries but when they come here they are branded."

South Africa's treatment of asylum-seekers hit international headlines last week when reports of heavy-handed police action followed the arrest of 520 people in a midnight raid at the Central Methodist Church in downtown Joburg.

Two days later, a hard-hitting report from the International Federation of Human Rights said the country's migration policy criminalised migration and fuelled xenophobia.

"It was at around 11pm when I heard pandemonium," recalled Alphou Zhou, one of the church's support staff, who was detained for five days. "The police had invaded the place and were looking for us in every corner. They came to drag us out,"

Zhou said he saw people kicked, beaten and slapped. "It was inhumane. I never thought it would happen in such a democratic country."

No pre-warning came of the raid and no warrant was presented, said Bishop Paul Verryn who encountered a wall of terrified residents swarming up to his office when the raid started. A door to the bishop's office did not escape the rampage. The was broken and more than R400 was stolen off his desk. The bishop himself was pushed, and pulled by his belt.

The police justified the raid as a search for robbers, illegal gun holders and drugs. None were found. "It was fascist," said Verryn, visibly drained.

"I am certainly not a criminal and I don't deserve to be treated like that. Neither do the other 1 300 people in the building. This is not a criminal outlet. It's not a crime to be in this country seeking safety."

Of the 520 people detained, 141 were released after relevant documents were brought to the police station. By Monday, 379 people remained in custody. Most were released after the state failed to bring them court in the legally stipulated 48 hours after arrest.

A near farce occurred for those who went to court on Friday last week. A team of advocates, led by the Legal Resources Centre, found a clerk at the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court filling out warrants of detention that indicated no bail had been granted. This was despite the accused having not yet arrived in court. New forms were quickly prepared. All 15 people were remanded and bail applications postponed.

When court resumed this week, a heavyweight team of advocates and attorneys - including former Constitutional Court Justice Johann Kriegler, George Bizos SC, public-interest legal organisations and private firms - arrived in response to a call for assistance. All of them acted pro bono for the church, and the legal action continues.

Kajaal Ramjathan-Keogh, of Lawyers for Human Rights, said the arrest and detention of bona fide asylum-seekers was unlawful. Any foreigner was entitled to seek temporary asylum and could lawfully stay in the country until his or her refugee status was decided upon.

However, lack of access to refugee centres made it impossible for asylum-seekers to comply with the law to become documented.

Home Affairs spokesperson Jacky Mashapu said no one was allowed to be deported to a country where they could face persecution or danger. Despite this, the government believes that most Zimbabweans are not refugees. "It is true that many of the Zimbabweans applying for asylum in the country are in fact economic migrants," said Mashapu. "They do not qualify for refugee status under international law and our domestic law."

This was a misinterpretation, said human rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba, of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum. "There is a misconception that one qualifies to become a refugee because there is a civil war in one's country. It is deliberately cultivated by high-ranking officials."

This week, the international condemnation and explosive media coverage of the church raid appeared to have been noted by the government, which has long followed "quiet diplomacy" towards its imploding neighbour.

Verryn is due to meet Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula on Monday for a second time. Gauteng Safety and Security MEC Firoz Cachalia condemned the reports of police abuse, theft and property damage after a meeting with the bishop.

By 10pm on Tuesday, life at the church appeared to be back to normal. People were bedding down in the stairwells, passages and foyer. Mothers readied children for bed. The queue outside the bishop's office was its usual, corridor-challenging length.

But smashed door-locks, such as the mangled plywood of the preschool door, remain. And a long list of missing items, police bribery and alleged physical abuse (some of which are now on court record) sits on Verryn's desk.

On Thursday, a joker caused pandemonium once again when he entered a room set aside for mothers and yelled "Police!" And a sudden outside rumpus on Tuesday night had everyone rushing to the windows. Just in case.

For Verryn, who learns the life stories and vulnerabilities of residents, the aggression of the raid was excruciating. "The most sacred thing that has been violated [is] the sense of security, because it was so particularly vicious."

Reconciliation and restoring dignity are the next steps, he said. "If we can learn to trust one another, it could be a new day.

"The fact is that society is infected with profound xenophobia. We are not yet through the woods on prejudice." * Not their real names.

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