Ladies and gentlemen of the media, thank you for once again taking the time to join us for our weekly media briefing.
Today, we would like to brief you on the Lindela Repatriation Centre, the status of Vito Palazzolo, as well as to reiterate our operational arrangements for the Easter weekend.
The Lindela Repatriation Centre
We thought we should take this opportunity to brief you on the situation at the Lindela Repatriation Centre.
The Lindela Repatration Centre, for those of you who would not know, is a deportation facility for foreign nationals who are in breach of our immigration law. This refers to those foreign nationals who may have entered the country without the required permits or travel documents. A foreign national with an expired permit is also in breach our the Immigration Act.
In addition, under the Immigration Act, an immigration officer may arrest an illegal foreigner and deport him or her for contravening South Africa’s Immigration Act.
Further to this, in terms of the provision of this Act, the deportee has a right of appeal and must be held in compliance with minimum standards protecting his or her dignity and human rights. In this regard, the Human Rights Commission and the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs has oversight over the Centre and regularly visit the facility to assess conditions in which deportees are held as well as the general management of the Centre.
Although foreign nationals who are in breach of South Africa’s immigration law are held at Lindela, their deportation is handled in conjunction with resident Embassies and High Commissions who must verify citizenship and issue the relevant travel documents.
This is sometimes made very difficult when the foreign nationals do not cooperate with representatives of their governments. Consequently we are sometimes unable to process the deportation of such nationals within the 120 days as prescribed in our Immigration Act.
In the meantime, we would like to reiterate to foreign nationals who enter the Republic of South Africa with the intention of applying for asylum to do so at a port of entry upon arrival so that the relevant permit – a Section 22 permit – can be issued and the application processed. Asylum should not be applied for upon detention ahead of deportation.
Status regarding Vito Palazzolo
The man known as Vito Palazzolo has recently made headlines following his arrest by Interpol in Thailand while allegedly in possession of a South African passport.
While we are still investigating this matter in collaboration with the South African Embassy in Thailand as well as other international law enforcement agencies including Interpol, we would like to put a few things on record:
- According to our records Vito Palazzolo has been in the Republic of South Africa since the 1980s and was granted citizenship by the then government.
- We are however looking at the process through which South African citizenship was granted by the then government.
- We are also aware that Mr Palazzolo used a Paraguay passport in 1992 which indicated he was a permanent residence holder in that country.
- We are currently investigating how this individual, known to us in South Africa, as Vito Roberto Salvatore Maria Palazzolo acquired a passport in a different name of Robert Palace Kobatschenko and used it to leave the country.
- Once we have ascertained all the facts around this issue, a determination on the way forward will be made.
Operational arrangements for the Easter Period
We last week announced operational arrangements for the Easter weekend with a view to ensuring all travellers through our ports of entry receive efficient and effective services.
To this end, the Minister of Home Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has approved the extension of operational hours at certain ports of entry in Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Free State and Eastern Cape.
Details of these extended operating hours are as follows:
Mpumalanga:
- Lebombo for 24 hours from 2 April – 2 May;
- Oshoek for 24 hours from 5-6 April;
- Mananga from 07h00-00h00 from 5-9 April;
- Mahamba from 07h00-22h00 from 5-9 April; and
- Jeppes Reef from 07h00-22h00 from 5-9 April.
Limpopo
- Groblersbrug for 24 hours from 5-8 April 2012
Free State
- Van Rooyenshek for 24 hours on 5 April 2012
Eastern Cape
- Qashasneck from 06h00-22h00 on 4 April and for 24 hours on 5 April 2012.
To further ensure we process traveller movements, through our Movement Control (MCS) and Advanced Passenger Processing Systems (APP), securely and efficiently, we have also effective 2 April 2012 deployed a further 200 immigration officers to ports of entry.
In this regard, 40 additional officers have been deployed to the Free State, 72 to Mpumalanga, 18 to Northern Cape, 22 to KwaZulu-Natal, 7 to the Eastern Cape, and 41 to Limpopo.
On the eve of the long weekend, we take this opportunity to wish all those travelling through our ports of entry a safe and blessed Easter.
Questions and Answers
Question Director-General, could you tell us a little bit more about what is going on at Lindela at the moment? We heard of a riot last week which resulted in some of the deportees being injured. What is their status now? Why were the rioting?
Answer (Director-General Mkuseli Apleni): Yes there were some deportees who staged a fight at the centre last week but it was not a riot. Because of the security at the Centre which is looking after the Centre, there were no injuries that necessitated people being taken to hospital for serious injuries and broken bones.
There were many reasons for this fight including issues of people not being happy about their deportation. However, this relates to the issues about which we are now talking – if we cannot verify your citizenship or nationality, how will we know to which could you should be deported? We must also verify such information with the Embassy or High Commission so we can effect such deportations.
Question Director-General, there have been several detentions at OR Tambo International over the last few days – I am certain you would know of the detention of Trevor Ncube of the Mail and Guardian. We also received a call from a woman with an 82 year old mother who was detained for about nine hours because she did not have enough pages in her passport. She was then released without being charged although she was asked to pay R563 – I have proof of a hand written receipt. What can you tell us about this?
Answer (Director-General Mkuseli Apleni): I think we are on record as saying as a country, we will be strengthening security at our ports of entry. Therefore, as a country, we recruited 350 immigration officers who have been trained to ensure they can assess the authenticity of documents so that people who are coming into the country have valid documents.
Our role as a department is not just to process people – we have said it is our role to process people securely so what happened at OR Tambo International is that when Mr Ncube presented himself to the immigration officer, there were some things that needed to be checked and verified. This took about 15-20 minutes. They had to check the validity of the visa, the authenticity of the passport and the ID. This was part of our normal processes of verification. The same can be said of South Africans who travel to other countries.
Immigration officers also check everyone who comes into the country.
With the old lady, it is standard – it is in our regulations and is more or less an international norm – that when you travel, you should have at least one blank page in your passport. This will allow for immigration officers to stamp your entry. This indicates the authority given to you to sorjourn in a particular country. This can be checked by police or any law enforcement authority which wants to assess whether you are in the country legally. If you do not have such a stamp it means you are in the country illegally.
Now, what happened with the old lady – and what are the rules of the game – the rules of the game say that as a passenger you are the responsibility of the airline until you pass through immigration. It is therefore the responsibility of the airline to check your documents before you are loaded in the country of origin.
If these documents are not in order, you are returned to the custody of the airline. You will notice that airlines that travel in the morning or the evening, will return the following morning or evening. But they have a special area in the airport in which to hold such passengers that have been returned.
So our responsibility as immigration officers is to return passengers to the airline and they will be taken care of by the airline.
We will however investigate this payment of R563 because this is the responsibility of the airline and not the Department of Home Affairs so I am not certain for what this money would have been required.
But what happened with this case of the old lady is that our manager at OR Tambo International Airport, when he received this case, assessed it and decided to let this person go through with the provision that she visits her Embassy as soon as possible for a new passport. So he evaluated the risk and decided to let her through.
Returning passengers is the responsibility of the airline and they also bear the costs related to this.
Question Director-General, I know that the number of deportees at Lindela is not static – but could you please give us an idea of how many deportees are at Lindela at the moment. Secondly, on the issue of Vito Palazzolo – although your investigation is yet to be concluded – do you anticipate he will be deported if it is found that he really is a fugitive from justice?
Answer (Director-General Mkuseli Apleni): As you correctly say regarding the figures at Lindela – these fluctuate. As we have said, Lindela is really a holding facility. The numbers we currently have fluctuate between 1 000-1 500.
Regarding Mr Palazzolo – as a rules based country, we have rules and these rules and procedures are not applied indiscriminately, depending on who you are. If the documents you have are proven to be fraudulent, you will be deported, and this includes Mr Palazzolo. This is why we are saying we are investigating this matter. Mr Palazzolo is not even in our country at the moment. We are liaising with the authorities of the country in which he is.
This is what we were saying about Lindela – that is we can only deport once we have ascertained beyond doubt the nationality of the deportees.
If Mr Palazzolo is a fugitive from justice in the country where he is, and this is proven, then we will be able to say he can be deported to his country of origin. This is provided for in our Immigration Act and will be applied to whomever is applies.
In terms of other documents, if you are a foreign national, it depends on what you have applied for. If come into the country as a visitor, you received a visitors permit. We have said this begins from the 1980s. If you come into the country on a visitors permit but you want to change your status having been in the country for a few years, the Immigration Act allows for this. If you comply with the regulations you will be given a permanent residence permit. If after this, you want to apply for naturalisation, and if the processes have been followed thoroughly, this is allowed. But there are processes related to what documents can be given to you. These are not discriminatory and can be applied according to the rules of the country.
Question Director-General, what other diplomatic assistance will be rendered to him? Also regarding the deportation of foreign nationals within 120 days and the difficulty to finalise deportations due to challenges of verification of these foreign nationals – what is the longest time that a foreign national has been held at Lindela?
Answer (Director-General Mkuseli Apleni): In terms of the reasons why we are not able to deport foreign nationals within 120 days – this does not include the time from which you are arrested. Once you are arrested, say you are in the Eastern Cape, you have probably been arrested by the police and not our officials. Law enforcement authorities have 48 hours within which to verify the authenticity and validity of the documents. If you are not in possession of your documents, the police must also check with our officials to determine whether you have a valid permit or not.
After this verification has been done, remember Lindela is our central point for deportation. During this time a lot of things happen because people write their names incorrectly. This causes delays – even before we approach an Embassy because we cannot approach an Embassy with three names.
If a person says he has appealed the rejection of his permit, this is another process that must be followed because a decision cannot be taken without the finalisation of the outcome of this process.
It is these things that cause such delays but we work hard to maintain the timeframe of 120 days.
I am certain the media is aware of the case of the Botswana national which was before the Constitution Court. In this case, our constitution does not allow us to deport people to countries where there is capital punishment and there is the death penalty in Botswana. So we engaged with the Botswana authorities on this matter, seeking their assurance the person will not be subjected to the death penalty. They could not give us this assurance and we were therefore not able to deport this person. One of these citizens in still in the custody of the country because we cannot deport.
The longest case we have – although the person is no longer with us – is two years.
On the matter of the diplomatic assistance to Palazzolo – remember I had said we must firstly ensure we determine and verify his citizenship. Is this person a South African or not? Before this has been done we cannot confirm what assistance we will offer him. But once our investigation is complete and we can verify that this person is a South African citizen - we have responsibility to all South Africans in distress when they are abroad. If our investigation conclusively proves that Vito Palazzolo is a South African, we will render the assistance that is usually rendered to South African in distress.
But if he is not a South Africa, why would we as South Africa render assistance to a citizen that is not ours.
The bottom line on Palazzolo is to ask – who is this person? Is he a South African. South Africa does allow dual citizenship but it is parameters on how to deal with this. I cannot carry a passport of a particular country and when I am caught doing something wrong in that country using that passport and then I claim my other nationality. It does not work like this. There are rules of the game. If am travelling using a South African passport which has been legally awarded to me then the country has a responsibility.
Question Director-General, are you able to comment on the fact that one of the reasons for the delay in the deportation of foreign nationals is that they do not give you their correct details? Are you assured that the conditions at Lindela are optimal? Would this be one of the reasons they were fighting? How many people can that centre take?
Answer (Director-General Mkuseli Apleni): The centre is conducive and it has to comply with human rights. This is why we are saying our Portfolio Committee and other institutions responsible for human rights have oversight over the Centre.
I have said it is the reason for the delays in deportation – today we are talking about Mr Palazzolo who has used a different name. Recently we were taking about Mr Gavric which was a similar situation. These are facts, not something I am making up. This is the reality, people are changing their identities.
The facility can take 4 000 people – this is the maximum capacity for which it was built.
However, we are not interested merely in deportation – this is not what we are about as the Department of Home Affairs. But we want people to come in legally and we will treat them in a legal way. We have to ensure that the laws of this country are applied.
Question Director-General, can you confirm the status of the yellow fever certificates that were in the possession of the 125 Nigerians? Were they authentic? We have not been able to get a clear response from either the Departments of Health or International Relations and Co-operation.
Answer (Director-General Mkuseli Apleni): It is unfortunate that the departments that are responsible for this matter do not want to make the report known. It is not the responsibility of the Department of Home Affairs to deal with the matter of yellow fever certificates. Yellow fever certificates are the responsibility of the Department of Health. Our responsibility of the Department of Home Affairs is that if there are countries within the yellow fever belt as designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), our immigration officers know that if you are coming from such a country you must produce a yellow fever certificate. As an immigration officer, I must ask you to produce such a certificate.
If there is an issue I must refer to Port Health who will take up the matter further. In addition to this, if you go to OR Tambo International, there is something like a robot that is managed by the Department of Health. This tests your temperature – if it is outside of a particular level it becomes an issue for the health officials. The Department of Health then makes a recommendation. We do not have the competency to comment on the health certificates.
Question Director-General, regarding the fight at Lindela – we had reports that rubber bullets and teargas was used – you said that various oversight institutions visited the Centre – how often do they visit? In terms of our legislation foreign nationals must be deported within 120 days – if deportees cannot be processed in that time, is Home Affairs going to amend the legislation?
Answer (Director-General Mkuseli Apleni): We did not have any reports of teargas or rubber bullets. I would have explained this if so. I do not where such a report comes from.
On the issue of the change of legislation – we have amended our Immigration Act. We did not see a need to change the 120 day limit. We think this is sufficient. But if people are not cooperating the 120 days becomes insufficient.
We are beginning to say as a department – if I am uncooperative and it is close to the 120 days – perhaps we must take the matter to court and seek legal advice. We do not see a need to change the 120 days but we must enforce our Immigration Act.
(Head of Inspectorate, Mr Modiri Matthews): There are currently not more than 100 deportees at the Centre for longer than a period of 120 days.
The Human Rights Commission visited the Centre last week after the alleged incident and he interacted with deportees. The Portfolio Committee visits sporadically.
