Rights group to sue police
Lawyers battle to gains access to foreigners arrested during raids
LAWYERS for Human Rights (LHR) plan to take the police to court again this week after they were denied access to foreigners who were arrested during Operation Fiela on Friday.
The LHR obtained a court order on Friday instructing the police to give them access to the detainees. By yesterday, the lawyers were still denied access to foreigners held at the Johannesburg Central police station.
Operation Fiela, which means “to sweep clean”, is aimed at cracking down on crime and restoring order in provinces hit by xenophobic violence.
Gauteng police spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Katlego Mogale said officers arrested 211 men and 24 women for being undocumented immigrants during a raid in the Joburg CBD on Friday. Two others were arrested for being in possession of drugs.
LHR national director Jacob van Garderen said the rights group was finalising court papers.
“We are worried that there are asylum seekers and others with permits who have been arrested and they will be deported. After hours of trying to see the arrested, the station commander told us we could not see them. We are trying to see what further litigation we can get so we can see the detainees.”
Mogale could not explain why the lawyers were denied access to the detainees.
One of the 16 buildings raided was the Central Methodist Church, which has been a sanctuary for Zimbabwean migrants for more than 15 years.
The church’s former head, Bishop Paul Verryn, compared Operation Fiela to Zimbabwe’s Operation Murambatsvina, in which the government evicted people from informal settlements in 2005. The Zimbabwean operation saw more than 700 000 people moved from their homes.
“The operations have similar names. They both mean to get rid of unwanted things and they both have devastating results on the people concerned,” he said.
Verryn said he was disappointed that the government was targeting foreigners.
“There is more than one way to kill someone. I have no idea how these people are going to heal. They will have this pain for years, especially the children,” he said.
Department of Home Affairs spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete said the raids were not an abuse of power or human rights.
“It is illegal to be in the country without papers.”
He said that during the xenophobic attacks, the department and security cluster tried to support foreigners.
“The Department of Home Affairs and the security cluster have been working hard to preserve human life, but we also have to uphold the law.
“We have been deporting illegal immigrants before the first xenophobic violence in 2008. It is part of our duties.”
Tshwete said the criticism that the raids were state xenophobia were unfortunate.
“That is not a good interpretation. Coming into the country without papers is a crime.”
Tshwete said that since Operation Fiela started, about 700 people had been taken to Lindela Repatriation Centre in Krugersdorp West for deportation.
He said the centre was not under any strain and could accommodate up to 4 000 people.
Yesterday, North West police spokesman Colonel Sabata Mokgwabone said 210 suspected undocumented persons were taken in for processing and verification of their documents.
Dale McKinley from the Right2Know Campaign said the organisation was worried about the use of the army.
“We are trying to check the constitutionality of using the army in police operations. If the government says they are trying to root out criminality, why then are they targeting illegal immi- grants? It just stokes the fires and sends out a message that illegal immigrants are responsible for crime.”
McKinley said the areas that have been targeted for the raids mostly did not have any reported xenophobic violence.
“There has not been any violence in Thembelihle. Why then target that area? I think it is because they have been targeting foreigners and the area has been a pain for the government because of service delivery protests,” McKinley said.
He said they were also worried about conditions in Lindela because of an influx of people into the centre.
“We are worried about overcrowding, food and security in the centre,” he said.