Illegal immigrants walk past the dock and out the court door
The rear seats of the vehicle had been removed to accommodate the large number of people.
MBOMBELA – Twenty-six illegal immigrants who were arrested on Monday spent just enough time in court to walk past the dock and out the front of the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court door, on Wednesday.
Prosecutor, Mr Oupa Ndlovu told Lowvelder before this occurred that he had only obtained the police docket of Pakistani, Mr Arif Mahmood, the driver who was arrested for being an undocumented foreigner, along with the 26. He confirmed that the illegal immigrants were still in police custody.
Lowvelder then witnessed the men and women being escorted up the stairs and out of the holding cells by their defence advocate, Mr Pieter Naude. They filed through the door and into the hall where two “facilitators” met them.
Outside the court building they were ushered into two taxis and driven away. The whole spectacle lasted about 15 minutes.
Upon seeing the photos taken on the scene, a police source identified the facilitators as main players who were being investigated as part of a smuggling ring.
The arrests were made on Monday. The police flying squad stopped a minibus, branded with LaLucia Tours’ logo, on the KaMagugu Road. They discovered 27 undocumented people from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Pakistan. The rear seats of the vehicle had been removed to accommodate the large number of people. The driver was also undocumented. He was arrested. The 26 were arrested for transgressing the Immigration Act.
The vehicle was believed to have entered the country from Mozambique. Exactly where they crossed the border has not been established. LaLucia Tours’ owner identified himself as “Londi” and said his company had two tour vehicles. He said he was in Swaziland at the time of the incident. Londi said he would be contacting his lawyer regarding the matter.
Naude explained that his 26 clients were released from police custody because he had obtained asylum application permits for them from the Department of Home Affairs.
He told Lowvelder the permits were presented to the state, which withdrew the charges against them, allowing them to go free.
Home affairs control-immigration officer, Mr Joseph du Plessis said he had applied for the notices for the permits only after the case had been thrown out of court by the prosecutor.
When asked if he could produce proof that the prosecutor threw the case out before the permits were issued, he refused to comment further and stated he was not allowed to speak to the media.
A former employee of the department told the newspaper that basic procedures constitute that any person can apply for asylum, but if the person has been charged with a criminal offence, the normal court procedures had to be finalised before he or she could apply for asylum.
The 26 have five days to appear at a refugee centre to start the process of seeking asylum. The closest one to Mbombela is Braamfontein.
A the time of going to press, it was not yet clear what the outcome of Mahmood’s court appearance was.
Mbombela police spokesman, Capt Dawie Pretorius said the SAPS Organised Crime Unit was investigating the matter.
