DA Gauteng leader witnesses hell of Pretoria refugee centre

Asylum seekers’ horror stories of being whipped, screamed at, robbed, and asked for bribes of R200 to R300 by security and officials at the Desmond Tutu Refugee Centre in Marabastad in Pretoria, shocked DA Gauteng leader John Moodey.

Moodey watched first-hand how bribe money was being paid at the gates of the centre. This was a clear “abuse of power and authority”, he said.

“There is no friendliness at all, it is as if people are being intimidated into silence.”

A Unisa student, who wants to remain anonymous, said in coming early to be in the front of the entrance queue, she was attacked by two knife-wielding men, dragged into the bushes, robbed of her phones and valuables and almost raped. This happened at 1am.

She was not offered any help when she walked into the centre, and had to sit, bruised and sore, until she could get her asylum papers and leave. She has been in SA since 2008, and said she could not even go home when her mother died due to her asylum status.

Foreign nationals, predominantly from India, are seen speaking to media through a fence at the Desmond Tutu Refugee Center in Pretoria during a site visit by John Moodey, the provincial leader of the DA in Gauteng. The foreign nationals claimed they had to pay bribes just to gain entry into the center where they also allege foreigners are beaten and treated inhumanely, 11 June 2018, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles

Many other refugees told of the abuse they suffer at the hands of security personnel and officials – and that money talks when you want to get inside the centre.

But security personnel denied it.

“We don’t even have batons, pepper spray or any objects to attack them with,” they said.

Moodey also found himself in the middle of an altercation with security guards who spoke down to him, touched, pushed, and barred him and Gauteng North regional chairperson Abel Tau, from entering the premises.

An argument broke out between Moodey and security personnel, after which Moodey and Tau literally forced their way in.

Foreign nationals speak to media through a fence at the Desmond Tutu Refugee Center in Pretoria, 11 June 2018. Picture: Jacques Nelles

The duo were there to conduct an oversight inspection after receiving numerous complaints of bribery and corruption, intimidation and assault.

“I was fuming, because I was looking at how people were herded in like cattle and being spoken to as if they were criminals in some prison facilities.

“These people have got rights.

“There is no friendliness, it is as if people are being intimidated into silence,” Moodey said in disgust.

The entrance to the Desmond Tutu Refugee Center is seen during a site visit by John Moodey, the DA provincial leader in Gauteng, 11 June 2018, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles

He said he will be writing to the department of home affairs with the assistance of his colleague in parliament.

That the centre was being run like it is, while the centre’s manager was sitting in her office, is definitely something she is going to need to account for, he said.

“There will definitely be investigations taking place against quite a number of officials at this facility.

“They [the department] have a fraud and corruption unit that does investigations, and that is where I will be taking cases of fraud and corruption reported to me by asylum seekers,” Moodey said.

– virginiak@citizen.co.za

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