Thread: More Than 400 Mozambicans Deported From South Africa

More Than 400 Mozambicans Deported From South Africa

MAPUTO, Mozambique — May 16, 2015, 12:09 PM ET
By EMMANUEL CAMILLO Associated Press

More than 400 Mozambicans have returned home after being deported from neighboring South Africa, many spending their first night in the country sleeping in tents at a local repatriation center.

In South Africa, they were arrested when they were found without proper documents, some told the Associated Press. In nationwide raids, South African police arrested about 750 immigrants living in the country illegally.

"The police first asked for my ID, which I didn't have," said Jose Macuacua, who said he was not allowed to gather his belongings before he was taken to the Lindela Repatriation Center. There he met dozens of other immigrants from other southern African countries, like Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Macuacua, 26, said he entered South Africa illegally when guards at a border post failed to check if he had a passport. He lived in South Africa for two years, selling cellphone SIM cards, he said.

Maria da Gloria Mathe said she and her husband lived in the city of Rustenburg, in the South African platinum mining area, for four years, where they sold clothes.

"We collected what we could in a hurry, because the police were standing at the door of our shop," said Mathe.

The deportations come weeks after anti-foreigner attacks in South Africa in which seven people were killed, including at least one Mozambican. While South African officials condemned the violence, they have also sought to address complaints that immigrants living in the country illegally are taking employment opportunities from South Africans.

But the Mozambican government said it was surprised by the deportations.

"We expected to hold talks with the South Africans to discuss the problem, but we just saw people being arrested," said Mozambique's Foreign and Cooperation Minister, Oldemiro Baloi.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...frica-31091147

We need our bunch of dysfunctional D's and R's to announce that the USA is closed to migrants. That announcement needs to be made yet in 2015. We elected republicans under the belief that is what they would attend to. It is time to get them started! They have peed away nearly half the year.

The Repub leadership is selling out Americans, just as are the 'Bamacrats.

We're going to have to hammer away at the jobs issue, with a little quality of American life thrown in.
*****************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

S.Africa arrests 1,600 illegal immigrants in crackdown

6 hours ago

Pretoria (AFP) - More than 3,900 people -- including 1,650 illegal immigrants -- have been arrested in South Africa during a controversial police crackdown after April's deadly xenophobic violence, authorities said Sunday.

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"We are satisfied that we have stabilised the situation and further loss of life has been prevented," a government statement said.

"Security agencies continue to work around the clock to protect both foreign nationals and South African citizens against any attacks."

The crackdown came after at least seven people were killed as mobs hunted down migrant workers from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and other African countries, forcing hundreds of terrified families to abandon their homes.

Rampant unemployment and poverty are seen as an underlying cause of the violence by South Africans who accused migrants of stealing their jobs.

The arrests of illegal immigrants has prompted charges that the government was fanning xenophobic sentiment, though authorities categorically denied that the operation targeted foreigners.
View gallery

Thousands march in Johannesburg on April 23, 2015 against the recent wave of xenophobic attacks in S …

Some 2,260 South Africans have been arrested on a variety of charges since the operation began.

"We will, in the next weeks and months, accelerate our efforts to take back public buildings that have been hijacked, either by foreign nationals or by South Africans; rid our townships and villages of drugs... that are destroying the lives of many young people," the government statement added.

South African authorities are also going to continue with expulsions of foreigners. More than 400 Mozambicans were expelled Friday and 427 others in South Africa illegally are slated to be kicked out in the coming days.

While South African President Jacob Zuma has denounced the anti-immigrant violence he also promised to step up a crackdown on illegal immigration.

The police operation was strongly criticised during a rally Saturday in an immigrant neighbourhood in Johannesburg.

"Its timing, coming in the wake of the violent attacks targeting in particular people of African origin, feeds into the misconceptions that migrants are to blame for all our social and economic ills," said Zwelinzima Vavi, ex-secretary general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

Since the end of apartheid, South Africa has attracted millions of migrants fleeing political and economic turmoil in their own countries.

Zimbabweans account for the largest population of migrants in South Africa, with some analysts estimating they make up 23 percent of the whole workforce.

With a youth unemployment rate of over 50 percent and a slowing economy, cheap foreign labour is a hot political issue.

http://news.yahoo.com/africa-arrests...175926845.html