People smugglers target SA's porous borders
 | | Illegal imigrants from Zimbabwe after they had slipped under a razow-wire fence on the South African side of the Limpopo near Beit Bridge. They usually cross in the late aftrnoon, at night, or on weekends, when patrol officers are least on their guard. Photo: Neo Ntsoma |
|
|
|
Every week tens of thousands of refugees flow into South Africa, and each week South Africa ships out a few thousand, more than 1 000 every week to Zimbabwe alone. But United Nations and police officials say trying to stem the tide is like trying to stop a tsunami with a bucket. Jonathan Martins, the programme manager of the United Nations-funded International Organisation on Migrancy (IOM), told The Sunday Independent that South Africa's borders were "incredibly porous. People from as far as Ethiopia tend to go south to South Africa because there is a perception there are jobs and opportunities in South Africa". [Full
Story...]
|
|
|
Front Page 
©2006 Sunday Independent & Independent Online (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved.
