Gov�t ordered to relocate asylum seekers
Lebogang Mosikare | Thursday July 20, 2017 16:10
The asylum seekers, who are inclusive of rejected and awaiting asylum seekers, are currently incarcerated at the FCII and have been in detention since 2015. The High Court had previously ruled that their perpetual detention was unlawful and they should be released from custody with immediate effect.
However, government dragged its feet relocating the asylum seekers to Dukwi and currently they have been removed from the cells and are staying in an open space within the Centre. The asylum seekers are not provided with food by the State, but instead depend on food donated by volunteers for survival.
Delivering the final order on Friday, Justice Phadi Solomon said the asylum seekers should be moved to Dukwi Refugee Camp by July 21.
Solomon added should the state fail to abide by the court order, it would pay the costs of the urgent application that was launched by the respondents’ attorney Morgan Moseki on a punitive scale.
On Friday morning, the case was adjourned to the afternoon after the state failed to file its answering affidavit. State attorney, Ndiye Balule said he had been served with papers of the urgent application late on July 13 when he was about to knock off.
He however added that the State had filed a notice to oppose the application.
For his part, Moseki expressed displeasure that the state had not complied with the court order.
“The state is deliberately doing delaying tactics. I have just been informed that the state has started to register the asylum seekers using the biometric system just to delay moving the petitioners to Dukwi as previously ordered by the court. They are just using the registration as an excuse to not comply with the court order,” said Moseki.
Addressing members of the media on Friday afternoon, Moseki said he had filed an application to imprison the director of immigration, officer in charge of FCII and director of refugees in the ministry of defence, justice and security for not complying with the court order but the judge had been reluctant to take the decision.
“The only issue remaining is the provision of ablution to the petitioners,” he said. Moseki said in chambers, the state had argued that a shortage of food at Dukwi had delayed its compliance with the court order to relocate the asylum seekers.
“I went to do an inspection in loco at Dukwi Refugee Camp with a state attorney on Wednesday and found out that there was a lot of food in a storeroom contrary to what the state was saying.
“It is an embarrassment for a sovereign state like Botswana to lie that there is not enough food at Dukwi to feed the petitioners. It is simply a lie.
“It also boggles the mind why Botswana can afford to donate money to the United Nations to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and identify those responsible in Syria while she cannot afford to build ablution for the petitioners at Dukwi,” said Moseki.