The never ending story of Zimbabwean illegal immigrants
Ryder Gabathuse | Thursday March 24, 2016 11:57
Still the story does not lose taste every time it is told. Perhaps, this is because the story involves disadvantaged fellow human beings who are painfully forced to leave their country because of the political and economic crisis they face.
Botswana’s refugee camp at Dukwi accommodates some political refugees who hail from Zimbabwe as well as from other countries.
A majority are forced to search for economic opportunities in the diaspora as the economy in Zimbabwe continues to slide deeper into crisis.
Once they settle in their host countries, they do not choose jobs, but settle for anything that can relieve them from the pressures of life.
Some of the young Zimbabwean men and women start off as housemaids, garden boys, construction labourers, and commercial sex workers or are simply taken in as live-in lovers.
Others settle for agricultural occupations such as herdmen, field labourers and other related work.
But, there are professionals who enter the country legally and secure both work and residence permits and only choose to remain in the country illegally after they fail to renew their permits.
Last year, a pastor from Zimbabwe who operates a church in the city, told a magistrate court here that he chose to remain in the country without valid documents, “because I am a bread winner back home in Zimbabwe”.
This is after law enforcement agents raided his church before arresting him. They kept him at the centre for illegal immigrants at the Gerald Estates in Francistown. He was forced to pay an admission of guilt fine before he was deported.
Botswana has its fair share of problems in so far as unemployment is concerned with the national rate estimated at 19 percent.
There are no jobs and therefore, the seemingly ‘exaggerated’ economic position of Botswana gives false hope to the many jobless able-bodies that loiter the streets of Zimbabwe.
Botswana also has many graduates who roam the streets as the country’s economy continues to experience a jobless growth.
Zimbabweans mainly run away from their home country and jump the border into Botswana chasing economic opportunities as the situation in theirs, once dubbed the bread basket of Africa, does not offer them hope anymore.
The 2013 population census reflects that Zimbabwe has about 14.15 million people.
So, they jump the border to join several thousands of their country people who were also lured by Botswana’s economic standing.
It’s apparent that jumping the border into Botswana is very easy as women are seemingly in the majority of border jumpers. Some of them walk long distances to reach their destinations.
Once caught by law enforcement agents in the thickets they are either beaten or sent back the way they came from or face the full wrath of the law, which involves charging them and taking them to court.
Finally, they will be transported to the border for deportation. Before long they will be back in town.
For the unlucky poor women, criminals waylay them, before robbing them of their valuables and worse, raping them.
Tshesebe police station commander, Superintendent Amos Kekgathetse told Mmegi that incidents of this nature, which used to be common, are no longer reported in his policing area. This is a positive development, which also suggests that women jumping the border travel in large groups that scare away potential rapists.
Just how these people beat the police and the army manning the borderline remains a mystery. In the past, Botswana police used to discover decomposed human remains in the thickets between Francistown and the borderline, which they attributed to illegal immigrants.
Government records show that 26,717 people were deported from Botswana in 2002.
About 17,402 and 22,675 illegal immigrants were deported in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Last year, information sourced from the head of investigations and repatriation division of the Immigration department, Solomon Sedumedi shows that about 28,653 illegal immigrants were deported from the country.
“These are the people who have entered the country at ungazetted points and those who have valid passports but illegally remained in the country after the expiry of their authorised stay,” explained Sedumedi in an interview this week.
In the process, his department incurred costs estimated at about P452,732.30 to repatriate the illegal immigrants.
Assuming that the police feed the illegal immigrants at about P25 a meal per person and P75 per person for a square meal per day. Now for 28,653 people the police would have fed them at about P716,325 for a single meal per day and P2,148,975 for a square meal per day and the cost for two days for the same number would have been P4,297,950.
Perhaps, in a bid to combat the influx of illegal immigrants, former MP for Francistown West, the late Tshelang Masisi was spot on when he told Parliament in 2010: “As a deterrent, criminal sanctions must be instituted against Zimbabwean illegal immigrants”.
Any day, when the police mount massive roadblocks around town, they bring down the taxi industry to a halt, as a lot of drivers are illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe employed by Batswana.
At many households, some workers fail to go to work because their housemaids have been arrested, charged and left their young children unattended.
Masisi told Prliament then, that it would be better if those who entered Botswana illegally and those who overstayed were sentenced to prison terms with hard labour. He said that this could deter many from entering Botswana illegally and save the government of Botswana a lot of money.
In his State of the Nation Address in 2013, a worried President Ian Khama stated that a total of 31,461 illegal immigrants were repatriated between October 2012 and May 2013.
Former president Festus Mogae faced international condemnation when his government constructed a multi-million pula electrified fence along the Botswana/Zimbabwe border, which according to the official line was to control illegal movement of livestock.
This was at a time when villages along the border were vulnerable to the outbreaks of the contagious Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) from Maitengwe to Bobonong paralysing the cattle and beef industries. The Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) Francistown abattoir was closed in an endeavour to clear the area of FMD. Abattoir employees were temporarily laid off because there was no production. They were even forced to borrow their salaries from the employer.
On the Zimbabwean side, their contention was that the fence was targeting human migration sparking an altercation between Botswana and its neighbour.
The debate sparked an unnecessary diplomatic row with the then Zimbabwean high commissioner to Botswana Phelekeza Mphoko now Zimbabwe’s second Vice President rejecting the official line, calling the fence an attempt to make Zimbabwe into another Gaza Strip. Botswana was forced to abandon its project after its neighbour’s loud cry reached the international community.
Botswana’s foreign affairs minister at the time, the late Mompati Merafhe entered the fray to the rescue of Mogae.
He dismissed Mphoko’s concerns, adding that there was no attempt to seal the border when interviewed by the UK-based, The Guardian.
“I cannot understand people who say we are trying to close the border with Zimbabwe while we are encouraging Zimbabweans to use gazetted points of entry. We have more border posts with Zimbabwe than with any other country.
“The construction of the fence must continue and it will continue. We have to go ahead with the defence and when need be, we will open some more border posts,” Merafhe was quoted in The Guardian.
At the UN, Botswana representative, Alfred Dube was quoted by the AFP news agency then: “We are concerned about what is going on [in Zimbabwe]. It is very unfortunate that we have our houses being burgled every day and our children being harassed. We understand why our people are saying that (illegal immigrant) Zimbabweans must go”.