Govt Disingenuous With Asylum Seekers-Moseki
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday October 16, 2017 16:21
In her address at the UN meeting which ended on October 6, the permanent secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security Segwakeng Tsiane said:
“Following the 2016 summit that was held in New York, the government of Botswana has intensified its support to refugees.
This includes the review of our Refugees Act, implementation of court orders issued by the High Court of Botswana relating to the release of rejected asylum seekers from the Francistown Centre of Illegal Immigrants (FCII) to the Dukwi Refugee Camp (DRC), renovating and upgrading of the DRC Clinic to a maternity wing and 24 hour clinic”.
Tsiane also said the government of Botswana has also increased the number of resident medical doctors and interns, increased the number of classrooms for pre-school and primary education within the camp as well as collaborating with a local non-governmental organisation in the provision of skills training.
The statement did not go down well with the attorney who represented the rejected asylum seekers.
The attorney, Morgan Moseki represented refugees whose refugee status was revoked by the government and asylum seekers whose application for refugee status was rejected in many cases before various judges at the Francistown High Court.
Guns blazing, Moseki chided the government for not being candid at the recent UN meeting.
“While the above statement was sweeping and pleasing to the world, the UN in particular, the government of Botswana was disingenuous in that it has not told the UN that compliance to the court order of the release of asylum seekers from the FCII took a month after two court orders.
The matter was later referred to the Court of Appeal (CoA) which ruled that the poor asylum seekers should be moved to the DRC even before the state appeal was determined by the CoA,” Moseki said.
Towards the end July, government through Collins Newman & Co filed a notice to appeal Justice Phadi Solomon’s judgment at the CoA.
The State made its appeal after Justice Solomon on July 4 made an order that the 164 asylum seekers and their small children-some of whom were denied opportunity to go to school because they were incarcerated with their parents at the FCII-be moved to Dukwi with immediate effect because their continued incarceration was unlawful. Moseki continued: “Quite apart from that fact, the government of Botswana has not told the world when it appeared before that August body that it has angrily appealed the decision of Justice Solomon to release the asylum seekers to the DRC which appeal will be heard before the CoA on October 19.”
Moseki said that in the same month that the government appeared before the UN, if the CoA upholds the government’s appeal, it would mean that the government of Botswana will deal with the asylum seekers ruthlessly by keeping them in perpetual custody at the FCII something the state deliberately did not tell the UN.
“It is very unfortunate that the government of Botswana tethers on the brink of rogue states. In other words, it says one thing and does the opposite,” Moseki said.