SIU raids Home Affairs refugee centres

the SIU has just raided the officers of Home Affairs Refugee centers in parts of the country one of them is in Petoria it's also where we find home affairs minister Dr Aron M who's now engaging the media let's listen in he goes to another who WR that they they actually qual I mean that they qualify so you have got two different reports about one person Minister how many senior officials are being targeted here firstly and is it undocumented foreign Nationals who were coming here as well and you know bribing to get these um documentation no if you bribe to get documentation it means you not documented it's true it's people who are arriving here when when you go to a refugee Reception Center many do not have documents but but let me explain it this way in terms of the law and the policies who are following if you arrive at the Border in other words don't jump a fence CL in a glenstein manner or what you arrive at the border you say look I want to enter your country I'm going to be a refugee they give you what we call a section 23 permit it's section 23 of the Immigration Act it says okay you can enter but we have got 5 days to arrive at the nearest Refugee Reception Center announce your presence there and start applying as Asylum Seeker so that section 23 permit has got a LIF stand of 5 days then you must arrive here or in musina or in or in cap town or inini and once you arrive there you announce yourself whether you are telling the truth or not they obliged to give you a section 22 permit that is section 22 of the refugee act it says you are a Bor AIT Asylum Seeker you are recognized as being South Africa to look for Asylum that document is official documentation all of them are official no police officer or law enforcement officer can trouble you we regard you as documented then you start applying the section 22 permit will give you between 3 and 6 months while you are applying if thereafter you are successful you are given a section 24 permit under the refugee act it means you are a Bor Fe the refugee you are under International protection you are recognized to be under na International protection having run away from our country if on the other if on the other hand you are rejected then it means we have to deport you you youve got to start the process of deportation because you're not successful meaning you are not telling the truth that you are a refugee so it is those who are not successful who then get involved in this primary situation just one more from me and are you saying it's only those who are not successful uh because we've heard many stories of also legitimate Asylum Seekers who are also forced to bribe their way into getting papers yeah but that one is is reported to be happening everywhere even in home Affairs office and I always tell people don't pay pay bribe for something that is free that one is a different story I mean why if you are a legitimate Asylum Seeker why do you pay a bribe you are helping thary I know people say no no no they are forced to because there's inefficiency and all that but then how are we going to fight corruption when you know that what you are doing is legal and then you you you you you you encourage illegality it's like on the roads when you pay a bribe to a traffic officer you are also guilty as a South African why do you pay prbe to I mean to an officer why don't you follow the law because you know there's a law there that if you broken a traffic room you appear in court or you pay a certain fine or they give you a ticket why go and pay a pride so it means you are also a participant in the briber so I'm not feeling pity for those people who say they legitimate you can't be legitimate but at the same time pay a bribe that's not legitimacy Minister there was a biometric system that was launched I believe it was back in 2018 saying would be a deterrent to officials to actually issue uh some of these documents corruptly so or fraudulently so isn't that system actually working as a deterrent to those who would be issuing these documents look any system is as good as the people are using it and we don't have one system we've got many it's multiplicity of system which we have employed to try and discourage people I suspect the one you are talking about is the Electronic Movement control system that's the system that records whoever enters the country it's an automated system if you enter it it electronically record your entry into the country and the time so that if you are given 90 days or 30 days we will know at the time when you depart that's a movement control system but we also have backham biometric access control movement yeah which in the past I suspect you talking about that in the past home Affairs officials to get into the databases like the national population register Etc to put you there they were using passwords now many of them will come and claim that my password stolen this and that happened with my password and the case get lost now we we cancel passwords we using the backham biometric access control you must put your fingerprint that fingerprint will record who issued this document exactly so what some of them do it might be a marriage certificate or a fraudulent ID or a passport what some of them do they issue those documents but they don't open the system with their finger print because it will be recorded in other words they you they give you a DT which you you carry and say oh I'm I'm I'm having a marriage certificate and all that which is a d and how do we know the the moment we look at it we check in the national population register it's not there then we tell no you don't have a marriage somebody cheated you but remember he would have paid we said it's between you and the person who cheated you you didn't cheat US you didn't cheat US you didn't cheat Us in government you cheated each other because you paid money and he gave you a document that doesn't exist so you don't have a marriage or you don't have an ID or you don't have a passport Minister live and new room Africa and of course we just came in a little bit late if you could perhaps explain to us the processes that you have gone through to ensure that you you search and sees uh some of the documentation in this in this in these offices it's a long story man they won't mind if I started okay fine I said there you go I need to start from the beginning after the Advent of Pastor bushiri who as you know had got a fraudulent permanent residence document while we're still looking at it I received a petition from people are working with permitting permitting are people who allow people to get visas keping out of South Africa they wrote a petition to me to say the counter corruption unit must stop investigating their errors they call them errors that's when I put that committee which was ched by uh the the the retired director General Dr Kia I put up that committee you know it went to report to Parliament when I looked at their findings I was very worried I then went to SIU that's when then the president signed the proclamation that the SIU must enter it was on the base of what I saw from the L report but then SIU was given a proclamation for the whole home off yes but at the same time the counter corruption Unit were dealing with matters here they made me meet a whistleblower I went to sit with that whistleblower after that I said no this is very ENT and is big and it's not something that I can wait I approached the head of the SIU I told him that I know the president gave you a proclamation I don't interview with your work but come in hear something I've heard I took him to the whistle blower and he listened when he finished he agreed with me he said oh this is big what is happening Minister here no no no he said this is big and we need to come in and they took Avid David from The Whistleblower they went to court to get a warrant of search and SE that they must search and Cee any document or any Gadget here which the people are using and and and that's what that's what is happening today the reception centers are five in the country one is in M this process now there SIU there doing the same thing they doing here searching and seasoning there's one in keep town they doing the same thing there's one in they doing the same thing there's one in De they doing the same thing your question is you mean what's the work of people here what's the allegations at this point what are they doing no the allegations is about people who are looking for Refugee status in South Africa who don't deserve it but who get it through briber that's the that's the main allegation who are given status that they do not deserve in terms of the law what what happens is if I have to to start to give you the procedure when you arrive at the borders if you don't jump a fence you are genine you want to come formally through a border gate you announce to the uh people there who are managing the borders that look I want to come into a country I'm running away I want to be a refugee they give you what we call a section 23 permit section 23 of the immigration all right so that's the situation in pya most specifically at the refugee Center in marabastad in frame there is home affairs minister Dr Aron m

Channel: SABC News

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Keywords: SABC News, actuality, world news, local news, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi

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Length: 10min 27sec (627 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2024