Cops taken to court over xenophobia victims

LAWYERS For Human Rights (LHR) will this morning go back to the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg in an attempt to force the police to allow them to see foreigners arrested in city-wide raids last week.

This will be the second time in a week that LHR drags the police to court over the matter.

On Friday, it was granted a court order forcing the police to give the organisation access to the detainees, but that still had not happened yesterday.

About 250 foreigners were arrested when the police and the army raided 16 buildings in the city centre last week as part of the government’s Operation Fiela, which is aimed at cracking down on crime and restoring order in provinces hit by xenophobic attacks.

The LHR’s David Cote said they were continuing with the court action because the police had not given them access to detainees held at the Johannesburg Central police station.

”The police have still not cooperated with us and so we have no choice but to take the matter to court,” said Cote.

LHR is worried that the police and the Department of Home Affairs will deport foreigners with legitimate papers.

The detainees were later to be moved to the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Krugersdorp for deportation.

There had been worries from LHR and the Right-2Know campaign that Lindela might be overcrowded. At least 700 foreigners had been sent to Lindela since the operation started. Home Affairs has said that the centre can accommodate up to 4 000 people at a time.

Gauteng police spokeswoman Katlego Mogale said yesterday that she was still waiting on a report on why the lawyers had not been given access to the detainees.