It was only upon an investigation by the Advertiser, that the arrested foreigners were finally on Thursday, December 4, moved to Lindelani detention centre in Krugersdorp.
Lindelani detention centre is a holding place for illegal immigrants before they are deported to their respective countries.
According to a reliable source, since the illegal immigrants’ arrest, Home Affairs officials had been moving the migrants from one station to another.
“Some of the illegal immigrants were first detained at the Benoni police station then moved to Boksburg North SAPS before they were moved to Boksburg police station,” said the source.
The police source has revealed that some of the illegal immigrants consisting of seven Lesotho nationals and four Zimbabweans have resorted to engaging in a hunger strike, as they have since Monday allegedly refused to eat.
The Boksburg police confirmed the detention of 11 illegal immigrants at their holding cells.
The seven illegal immigrants were allegedly brought into the station by Home Affairs officials.
Four of the Lesotho nationals were arrested by the Boksburg police on November 13, for illegal mining and being in the country illegally.
The four appeared in court on Friday, November 14, where their illegal mining charges were withdrawn.
They were, however, sent back to the police holding cells after failing to produce immigration documents.
Home Affairs officials claim that its officials were only brought on-board to deal with the seven Lesotho nationals on November 17, three days after the arrest of the four illegal immigrants accused of illegal mining.
They claim that the four Zimbabwean nationals were only arrested on November 24.
Giving grounds for the lengthy detention, the Home Affairs District operations manager in Ekurhuleni, Mamokubung Moeketsi, said these illegal immigrants in question lied as they insisted that they are in the country legally with others producing fraudulent documents, prompting the department to thoroughly investigate the matter.
“We had to make sure that they are indeed in the country legally by verifying those documents, and the process takes a long while,” explains Moeketsi.
According to Moeketsi, as a result of the investigation it was found that the suspects lied about their status.
“Some produced fraudulent documents, invalid passports, with others carrying valid passport, but without legal permit to stay in the country.”
Although some claim that Home Affairs has violated the law, which stipulates suspects can only be held in custody without being charged for a maximum of 48 hours, however, Home Affairs is adamant that no immigration laws have been violated.
“These people are not being held for far longer than the stipulated 20 days period,” explains Moeketsi.
– @FanieBoksburg
