PRESS STATEMENT: Mass Deportation and the threat to Xenophobic Tensions

Press Statement for immediate release

PASSOP would like to express its concern following the release of the (Africa Project for a Participatory Society)  APPS report last week regarding South African residents’ perceptions around deportation after the end of the Zimbabwe Documentation Project (ZDP). We are worried that the government’s plan to lift the moratorium on deportation of Zimbabweans may intensify xenophobic tensions in communities. We strongly urge the South African government and civil society to exercise extreme caution in their public statements on the subject matter, as they can have serious ramifications to social stability in the country. Any increased deportation of immigrants has always been and will be a costly move, both in financial terms and in human suffering. PASSOP further believes that the likely violence that will follow a return to deporting larger numbers (of undocumented immigrants and or rejected refugee applicants) will project a negative image of South Africa’s human rights image across the African continent and the world at large. South Africa still suffers from the irreparable damage done by the May, 2008 xenophobic violence. For these and other reasons, it is our firm believe that to embark any substantial deportation of Zimbabweans, and/or other foreigners would be a very dangerous move by South African government to do. We trust that the stability and safety of all who live in South Africa will be the top priority as the Zimbabwean Documentation Project continues.