By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Border Management Authority (BMA) has deported over 27,000 people who attempted to enter South Africa illegally during the festive season.
Speaking at a press briefing on Sunday to outline the achievements of his unit, Dr Nakampe Masiapato explained the outcomes of the BMA’s 43-day festive season operation.
“5,096,288 travellers crossed our 71 ports of entry, representing an increase of 1-million travellers compared to the 2022/2023 number of 4-million travellers, ” Masiapato said, adding the current figure was still 1-million down on pre-Covid numbers.
“In facilitating the movement of these travellers we processed more than 216,594 private vehicles, 21,502 minibus taxis, 6,443 buses and 55,765 trucks through our movement control system. Further, we processed more than 13,050 aircraft through our international airports and about 709 vessels across at our seaports. In addition, about 407 vessels were processed for crew changes through the off-port limit mechanism (which means crew changes without a vessel docking at port) in our maritime environment.”
Most of the travellers were facilitated through OR Tambo International Airport (993,759), followed by Lebombo land port of entry to Mozambique at 755,066, followed by Beitbridge land port of entry to Zimbabwe at 745,563 travellers. This was an increase of 22% at ORTIA, 24% at Lebombo and 25% at Beitbridge.
Masiapato said the BMA had been established in response to urgent calls for the government to address the massive influx of illegal migrants.
During the implementation of the festive plan, the BMA had collaborated with the South African Police Service, South African Revenue Service, South African National Defence Force, Cross Border Road Transport Agency, immigration inspectorate of the department of home affairs and various traffic authorities.
He said the BMA had detected 15,924 people trying to enter South Africa without the correct documents.
“After intercepting them, we took their fingerprints, declared them undesirable and banned them from re-entering South African for five years and had them deported, “Masiapato said, adding that most of the offenders were caught at Lebombo and Beitbridge.
Another 6,455 travellers were denied entry after being declared undesirable. These included people who had committed crimes in other countries and featured on the Interpol red list. In addition, 4,626 people were refused entry for being inadmissible for reasons such as invalid passports, fraudulent visas or failure to produce a valid yellow fever certificate when coming from yellow fever endemic countries. This amounted to a total of 27,005 individuals being deported.
He said, another challenge was illegal migrants entering the country by public transport. In one case, a bus stopped before a border post for passengers to get out. The bus then crossed the border with correct documentation, only to stop on the South African side where the passengers suddenly emerged and got back on the bus.
Masiapato said meetings have been held with some public transport operators on transporting illegal migrants into South Africa.
“We further engaged the leadership of Cross Border Road Transport Agency and agreed that bus companies should comply with the conditions of their cross-border permits. Otherwise, if they continue to transport illegal migrants into South Africa, such permits will be withdrawn,” he adds.