A majority of Zimbabweans deported from South Africa through the Beit Bridge Border Post continue to shun the humanitarian assistance offered by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), as they opt to illegally cross back into the country.

The IOM head of programmes, Ms Natalia Perez told Limpopo Mirror that out of the 6 500 deportees received at the organisation’s reception and support centre in Beit Bridge, only 2 700 accepted an offer to be assisted with transport to travel to their respective homes, while 3 800 declined the offer.

“We have also noted, particularly in farms around Limpopo, that some of the deportees are not given access to medication and therefore as IOM we have engaged partners who are assisting us,” she said.

Perez said her organisation has contracted several local bus companies to ferry the returnees to their homes. However, most of the deportees opt to cross back using undesignated entry points along the Limpopo River, despite the dangers of being attacked by crocodiles. Border jumpers also risk being mugged and raped by organised syndicates of armed robbers operating in bushy areas along the borderline.

The IOM has since 2005 been providing Zimbabweans deported from South Africa with assistance in the form of food, medication overnight accommodation, transport to travel to their homes as well as information on safe migration procedures. The organisation has opened two reception and support centres in Beit Bridge and Plumtree Border Post, to cater for deportees from South Africa and Botswana. The Beit Bridge reception and support centre has a capacity to handle 1 500 deportees at a given time.

Perez said most of the migrants deported through the Beit Bridge Border Post were people from Chipinge, Bulawayo, Chiredzi and Masvingo. “We normally get high numbers of migrants from Chipinge, Bulawayo, Chiredzi and Masvingo, which are our major receiving areas,” she said.

South Africa has so far deported a total of 6 500 Zimbabweans through Beit Bridge Border Post since it resumed the deportation exercise on 7 October. A majority of the deportees are males. The first batch of 261 deportees was brought in from the Lindela detention centre outside Johannesburg, in four buses under the escort of SA Home Affairs officials. The largest number of deportees was recorded on 8 November when 589 undocumented Zimbabweans were brought back home.

The deportations marked the end of an amnesty for illegal Zimbabwean immigrants staying in South Africa that ran from 5 May 2009 to 31 July this year. More than 275 000 applications from Zimbabweans wishing to regularise their stay in the country have been processed while several others were turned down and some are pending.