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Decline in deportees to Zim

 

The reception and support centre of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Beit Bridge assisted 18 368 Zimbabweans deported from South Africa with food and temporary shelter last year. That is a sharp decline compared to 27 509 deportees in 2013.

IOM established the centre in 2006 to help deported border jumpers with food and shelter.

The IOM programme manager, Mr Sam Grundy, said that the majority of the migrants assisted were 25 years and older. The centre also caters for deported children with food and temporary shelter.

The IOM has reception and support centres in Plumtree and Beit Bridge, where illegal immigrants deported from Botswana and South Africa receive humanitarian assistance. The assistance includes the provision of information on safe migration, overnight accommodation, food and transport to their respective homes.

The Beit Bridge Reception and Support Centre has, since its inception in 2006, assisted 385,483 returnees from South Africa. It has a capacity to handle 600 deportees at any given time.

 

Date:16 January 2015

By: Mashudu Netsianda

Mashudu Netsianda is our correspondent in Beit Bridge, Zimbabwe. He joined us in 2006, writing both local and international stories. He had worked for several Zimbabwean publications, as well as the Times of Swaziland. Mashudu received his training at the School of Mass Communication in Harare.

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