They handed them to colleagues from the department of
social development who activated the social workers at Musina.
“They later engaged their Zimbabwean counterparts and
processed the children back to Zimbabwe to be reconciled with their respective
families. Another incident involving a child was at Grobler’s Bridge port of
entry where a woman was attempting to exit South Africa to the Democratic
Republic of Congo via Botswana.
“The supposed ‘mother’ did not have a passport but was
carrying an emergency travel document (ETD) which was issued by the embassy of
the DRC and the child was completely undocumented. They were both handed over
to colleagues from the department of social development who processed and took
them to a place of safety in Limpopo,” he said.
South Africa's borders were busier this year in comparison
to last year.
The authority said they facilitated 1,136,250 travellers
across 71 ports of entry in 10 days. In the same period last year, 913 859
travellers were processed — meaning there were over 222 000 more travellers
this year.
Over a 10-day period during Easter nearly 4,000 people were
intercepted attempting to enter the country illegally.
Addressing a media briefing, Masiapato said 2,403 of those
intercepted did not have any documents at all. Another 1,019 individuals were
refused entry for being undesirable and 419 were found inadmissible to enter
the country due to various reasons.
“The majority of those arrested without documents were
intercepted at the vulnerable segments of the borderline. They were processed,
declared undesirable for five years, and were deported. Most of the
inadmissible individuals were found with invalid passports, fraudulent visas or
just failed to produce relevant documents such as valid yellow fever
certificates, especially those travelling from yellow fever endemic countries,”
Masiapato said.
“Incrementally, since the first deployment of the border
guards, the authority has managed to intercept and stop more than 281,000
individuals who attempted to enter South Africa illegally.”
Security had been strengthened at the borders during this
time, with Masiapato saying 400 junior border guards had been deployed at some
land ports to “assist in the critical role of sanitising the border environment
and ensuring the uninterrupted facilitation of the legitimate movement of
people and goods across the ports”.
On a more positive note, the authority said during the
Easter period, they observed a reduction in the number of undocumented and or
unaccompanied minors arriving at South African ports of entry. Sowetan
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