Illegal immigrants walk past the dock and out the court door

Source: Lowvelder, 12/05/2017

MBOMBELA â€" Twenty-six illegal immigrants who were arrested on Monday
spent just enough time in court to walk past the dock and out the
front of the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court door, on Wednesday.


Prosecutor, Mr Oupa Ndlovu told Lowvelder before this occurred that he
had only obtained the police docket of Pakistani, Mr Arif Mahmood, the
driver who was arrested for being an undocumented foreigner, along
with the 26. He confirmed that the illegal immigrants were still in
police custody.


Lowvelder then witnessed the men and women being escorted up the
stairs and out of the holding cells by their defence advocate, Mr
Pieter Naude. They filed through the door and into the hall where two
“facilitators” met them.


Outside the court building they were ushered into two taxis and driven
away. The whole spectacle lasted about 15 minutes.


Upon seeing the photos taken on the scene, a police source identified
the facilitators as main players who were being investigated as part
of a smuggling ring.


The arrests were made on Monday. The police flying squad stopped a
minibus, branded with LaLucia Tours’ logo, on the KaMagugu Road.


They discovered 27 undocumented people from Bangladesh,
Ethiopia, Eritrea and Pakistan. The rear seats of the vehicle had
been removed to accommodate the large number of people. The driver
was also undocumented. He was arrested. The 26 were arrested for
transgressing the Immigration Act.


The vehicle was believed to have entered the country from
Mozambique.

Exactly where they crossed the border has not
been established. LaLucia Tours’ owner identified himself as “Londi”
and said his company had two tour vehicles. He said he was in
Swaziland at the time of the incident. Londi said he would be
contacting his lawyer regarding the matter.


Naude explained that his 26 clients were released from police custody
because he had obtained asylum application permits for them from the
Department of Home Affairs.


He told Lowvelder the permits were presented to the state, which
withdrew the charges against them, allowing them to go free.


Home affairs control-immigration officer, Mr Joseph du Plessis said
he had applied for the notices for the permits only after the case had
been thrown out of court by the prosecutor.


When asked if he could produce proof that the prosecutor threw the
case out before the permits were issued, he refused to comment further
and stated he was not allowed to speak to the media.


A former employee of the department told the newspaper that basic
procedures constitute that any person can apply for asylum, but if the
person has been charged with a criminal offence, the normal court
procedures had to be finalised before he or she could apply for
asylum.



The 26 have five days to appear at a refugee centre to start the
process of seeking asylum. The closest one to Mbombela is
Braamfontein.


A the time of going to press, it was not yet clear what the outcome of
Mahmood’s court appearance was.


Mbombela police spokesman, Capt Dawie Pretorius said the SAPS
Organised Crime Unit was investigating the matter