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Refugees flood from Zimbabwe

This article is more than 16 years old
Flow of desperate migrants into South Africa intensifies as inflation and shortages worsen

The number of Zimbabweans seeking asylum in South Africa has increased dramatically since Robert Mugabe's police assaulted the country's opposition leaders on 11 March, experts say.

South Africa has not officially recognised the human rights abuses of President Mugabe's regime so those seeking refugee status face a difficult, drawn-out process. The flow of Zimbabweans fleeing the country, both legally and illegally, has become a rush as food and fuel shortages grow and inflation - now at 4,000 per cent - is predicted to hit a staggering 1.5 million per cent by year end.

Thousands of Zimbabweans are jumping the border into South Africa every week and many are falling prey to robbers who prowl the border zone. More than 165,000 were picked up and deported from South Africa in the past year, according to new figures released to The Observer by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM).

It is Africa's most extraordinary exodus from a country not at war, according to experts.

At Beitbridge, the great Limpopo river divides the two countries. Here there are frequent reports of Zimbabweans drowning or being eaten by crocodiles as they try to cross. Currently, South Africa is sending back more than 4,000 Zimbabweans every week, up more than 40 per cent from 2006.

These figures relate only to those who were caught and returned. There are no reliable figures on illegal migrants, it is widely estimated that 3.4 million Zimbabweans - a quarter of the population - have now fled.

On the ridge above the Limpopo, 12ft high electric fences bristling with razor wire mark the border. Patched-up holes riddle the fences, evidence of the constant traffic. Two freshly cut spaces break the fence and in the distance a small campfire can be seen where border jumpers huddle for warmth.

'This is one of the busiest borders in Africa,' says Andrew Gethi, IOM's Beitbridge operations officer. The IOM office opened in May 2006 and has been overwhelmed. 'We expected to deal with 6,000 deportees per month, but the number was 12,000 and it has gone up to 17,000,' said Gethi. 'It is seven days a week. We get no breaks.'

South Africa delivers its deportees to the IOM office on the Zimbabwean side. They are offered a hot meal, counselling and transport home. Only 55 per cent accept: the rest immediately turn around and try again, according to officials who are powerless to stop them.

South Africa's President, Thabo Mbeki, conceded last May that the enormous human influx 'is something we have to live with'. He avoided describing the economic collapse, hunger and repression creating the refugees.

Christopher is one of the border jumpers. 'People are leaving Zimbabwe because the government is not looking after the people - it's against the people, it's beating people, it's shooting people,' he says. 'There's no law in Zimbabwe. The law is for the President, he works for himself with the police and army only. That's why people are running away from Zimbabwe.

'I was with the opposition. They shot my dog in front of my children. They beat me and threatened to kill me. I was so scared of the government I didn't mind the danger from crocodiles or elephants'

Christopher found work on a farm. Human Rights Watch report that thousands of Zimbabweans face harsh conditions and abuse on South Africa's farms, yet no one opts to go back to Zimbabwe.

But as the number of exiles grows, so does resentment. 'They are taking our jobs. They are stealing. We should send them all back,' said Nepo Nkhahle, who runs a trucking business.

'I know it is not their fault. They don't know where their next meal is. But many South Africans are getting fed up with this.'

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