The South African government this morning resumed a mass raid and deportation exercise of illegal immigrants resident in the country’s commercial capital Johannesburg.
The operation led by the South Africa Police Service includes officers from the country’s immigration department and reinforced by the City of Johannesburg’s Metro Police and members of the South African Defence Forces. Scores of officers and vehicles were this morning seen being dispatched into the notorious Hillbrow suburb of Johannesburg heavily armed and equipped.
Hillbrow is home to hundreds of thousands of foreigners most of whom are resident illegally in the country. Hillbrow is home to mostly Zimbabweans and Nigerians. It is estimated that about a million Zimbabweans are living in and and around Hillbrow a few of whom have proper documentation to reside in South Africa.
Panic hit the streets in the early hours of this morning as the police vehicles made their way into the metropolitan suburb. People were seen dashing in every direction fleeing the police. Scores of them who were on their way to work were seen getting off the taxis making good their escape back home.
At the time of this article, the police are still cordoning off several residential flats in the suburb and stopping everyone on the streets checking residence permits.
The South African government recently called on Zimbabweans resident in the country to come forward and regularise their stay in the country under a special dispensation permit. Only 650 000 out of an estimated 3 million Zimbabweans resident in the country responded to the call. The government has since been making threats to massively deport Zimbabweans who remained illegally in the country or using fraudulent documents.
It is not yet clear how long the operation code named Fiela will last or how much it will be spread into other towns in South Africa. In 2002, South Africa engaged in a similar exercise under operation Sikhukhula which was stopped by the United High Commissioner for Refugees after hundreds of thousands of foreigners had been deported or thrown into detention camps in South Africa.