Children illegally detained at
New accusations raise the question: Who is watching the watchers
Dozens of children have been illegally detained at the country’s migrant repatriation centre, Lindela, reports by medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reveal. The accusations come on the heels of allegations of bloody beatings and suspicious deaths at the Krugersdorp centre that activists say operates behind a potentially widening veil of secrecy.
In April, Bosasa guards beat a group of detainees with pipes and fired on them at close range with rubber bullets, says the head of the detention monitoring unit at Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) Kayan Leung. Meanwhile, the causes of seven suspicious deaths in 2015 remain unsolved, according to an MSF report seen by Bhekisisa. In five of the seven deaths, people had consulted the clinic multiple times — only to be given headache tablets as their conditions worsened, MSF alleges.
Private security company Bosasa has run the Lindela Repatriation Centre, including its clinic, since 2007. Services provided by Bosasa at Lindela are reportedly so poor that, not only are some detainees denied life-saving care, the centre may also be putting children behind bars alongside adults, in violation of home affairs policies.
South African laws stipulate that the department of social welfare must house undocumented children in places of safety. In rare instances, minors like these can also be detained, but it is illegal to house them alongside adults, which can put children at risk of abuse, warns Corey Johnson, advocacy officer at the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town. The development organisation works on issues of migrant healthcare.
Home affairs spokesperson Thabo Mokgola has denied that children are detained at Lindela. But since 2016, an MSF paediatrician identified around 50 minors at the repatriation centre. The children were transferred to places of safety with the help of the department of social development, MSF medical coordinator Amir Shroufi says.
The same screening services that are failing to identify at-risk youth also do not detect detainees in need of medical attention quickly enough, says MSF. As part of its contract, Bosasa is responsible for operating a 24-hour clinic and sick bay at Lindela. It is the company’s responsibility to ensure that patients in need of surgery are transferred to nearby hospitals for care, says department of home affairs spokesperson Thabo Mokgola.
But Lindela’s clinic is dysfunctional, argues Shroufi. He says there is no entry screening for diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) and HIV for detainees. In fact, MSF found no TB or HIV testing equipment or treatment being carried out at the facility’s clinic during a visit earlier this year.
Instead, patients who need treatment for either condition are referred to a nearby public clinic, which MSF says may delay diagnoses and access to medication.
Mokgola denies the claims, saying Lindela provides full medical care and added a “pre-screening clinic” this year.
“Without HIV and TB tests, the [prescreening] clinic still misses cases,” says Garret Barnwell, who was part of the MSF team that conducted the latest assessment of Lindela.
Mokgola also says that “degrading treatment” of detainees, such as beatings, is not tolerated: “There is constant monitoring of the welfare of deportees who are free to report any incidents to home affairs officials in the centre.”
Bosasa’s contract with the department of home affairs precludes them from commenting publicly on allegations and the company referred all Bhekisisa questions to the department of home affairs.
Without treatment, TB can spread quickly in detention settings such as Lindela where living quarters have historically been overcrowded and poorly ventilated, states the MSF report.
A 2011 research review published in the journal PLoS Pathogens showed that people living with HIV are 20 times more likely to develop TB. Starting antiretroviral treatment can reduce that risk by up to 65%, a 2012 study that appeared in the journal PLoS Medicine found.
Anyone in South Africa, regardless of nationality or immigration status, is entitled to free HIV and TB treatment, according to a 2007 national health department directive.
Currently, there are no guidelines for what kind of care Lindela staff must provide to detainees, but national health department spokesperson Popo Maja says, even without this kind of guidance, the centre should adhere to national policies.
The health department does not oversee the clinic but could intervene if asked to, Maja explains.
Many of the allegations levelled against Lindela are not new. In 2012, MSF approached the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) with concerns about a lack of medical care and oversight at Lindela. Almost two years later, an investigation by the human rights body found that conditions at the Krugersdorp facility infringed detainees’ right to health