Who benefits from the undocumented?

Those who profit are corrupt officials, business and criminal groups such as Operation Dudula

- Nigel Branken

This morning, I am outside the Refugee Reception Office in Pretoria with two Ugandan refugees. They have come here twice before and been turned away in violation of the Refugee Convention and South African domestic law.

We arrived at 4.25am and we were number five in the queue. It is now just after 5am and already there are close to 50 people waiting. Vulnerable people, desperate to get documented.

The two people I am with fled to South Africa because of persecution they faced on account of their sexual orientation. Because the home affairs department has refused them entry before, they have been arrested, harassed and labelled “illegal immigrants”.

But whose actions are actually illegal here? Is it the refugees who, despite multiple attempts, have arrived at 4am with a social worker to ensure access? Or is it the government that makes it impossible to get documented legally?

When I interviewed Carol Lemekwana, of Lawyers for Human Rights, on my radio programme, she revealed the horrific fact that in the past two years not one newcomer has been granted asylum or given proper refugee documentation. Not one. She leads a clinic that supports refugees trying to get documented.

The Scalabrini Centre recently had to go to court to stop the home affairs department from arresting people who arrive here to seek refugee status.

This Pretoria office is one of only three still operating in the entire country. The others have been closed despite court orders to reopen them — orders that have simply been ignored.

So, we must ask: “Whose interests are served by not documenting people?” I want to name four groups who benefit.

First, corrupt government officials. Take Phophi Ramathuba, premier of Limpopo, who infamously told a vulnerable Zimbabwean patient recovering from surgery, “You are killing my healthcare system.”