Easter rush: 4 000 tried to enter SA, says Border Management Authority

The Border Management Authority (BMA) managed to intercept nearly 4000 people who attempted to enter South Africa illegally during the Easter period.

According to the authority, a change of approach has been taken where travellers found with fake passport stamps or fake passports were not deported but arrested and sent to prison to face the law.

This is after 143 people, including two women from Zimbabwe, were allegedly held at Beitbridge with fake stamps to stamp people’s passports.

BMA Commissioner Dr Michael Masiapato revealed this on Sunday when he outlined movement statistics and interceptions at ports of entry during the Easter period.

He said the authority had to deploy an additional 400 junior border guards, who are graduating next month, and has procured drones and body cameras to strengthen safety and security measures.

More than 1 million travellers were recorded across the 71 ports of entry over a period of 10 days.

This was 222 391 more travellers compared with the same period last year.

“We had to deal with individuals attempting to subvert processes and enter the country illegally.

“We were able to intercept about 3 841 individuals who were attempting to enter South Africa illegally.

“Out of this number of intercepted individuals, about 2 403 did not have any documents at all, about 1 019 were refused entry for being undesirable and about 419 were found to be inadmissible to enter the country due to various reasons.

“The majority of those arrested without documents were intercepted at the vulnerable segments of the borderline.

“They were processed, declared undesirable for five years, and deported.

“Most of the inadmissible individuals were found with invalid passports, fraudulent visas or just failed to produce relevant documents such as valid yellow fever certificates, especially those travelling from yellow fever endemic countries,” said Masiapato.

Eight penalties to the value of R270 000 were issued to bus companies found transporting illegal migrants at various ports of entry.

Masiapato said for the first time the Department of Social Development also joined operations because children were found in previous cases.

He noted that during the Easter period there was a reduction in the number of undocumented and or unaccompanied minors arriving at ports of entry.

“Despite this positive observation ... on March 28 we intercepted about five children at the Beitbridge port of entry.

“We handed them to colleagues from the Department of Social Development who alerted social workers at Musina.

“They later engaged their Zimbabwean counterparts and processed the children back to Zimbabwe to be reconciled with their respective families.

“Another incident involving a child was at Grobler’s Bridge port of entry where a woman was attempting to exit South Africa to the Democratic Republic of Congo via Botswana.

“The supposed ‘mother’ did not have a passport but was carrying an Emergency Travel Document (ETD) which was issued by the embassy of the DRC and the child was completely undocumented,” said Masiapato.

The woman and child were both handed over to Social Development who processed and took them to a place of safety within Limpopo.

Cape Times