The situation of Mozambican citizens who migrate legally and illegally to neighbouring countries is often catastrophic. In several instances, their human rights are systematically and grossly violated. High unemployment and social and economic difficulties face most Mozambicans. Citizens mostly cross the border in search of better living conditions and employment, especially those who live along the border with neighbouring countries such as Swaziland, South Africa and Zimbabwe. While some people emigrate or cross the border legally, hundreds cross clandestinely on a daily basis and are sent back in trains and trucks at regular intervals, often literally treated like cattle.

Contrary to the situation in Mozambique, the former colonies of the British Empire have mostly maintained a higher economic development index with an economically profitable agriculture and livestock sector, and a more developed manufacturing and mining industry.

Among the three countries with which Mozambique shares borders to the south and west, Swaziland is the least developed in terms of industrialisation, particularly in the mining sector. But it has a fairly well developed agriculture and livestock sector with efficient commercial and service sectors.

South Africa and Zimbabwe have always been in a more advantageous situation. In both countries, the employment of Mozambican citizens as specialised and non-specialised labour has played a crucial role in the economy, particularly in the agricultural sector. This has led to a tradition of migrant labour movements to these countries that persists to this day.

In addition to the economic situation prevailing in Mozambique, another factor contributing to migration is the hardship that has resulted from the protracted civil war that affected the country for 16 years. The impact of the war saw millions of Mozambican refugees finding their way to these three countries, as well as to Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania. The armed conflict not only devastated the country’s main infrastructure such as schools, bridges, roads, hospitals, factories and others, but also damaged the social fabric of the country. Although the United Nations through its High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) assisted in repatriating most Mozambican refugees after the General Peace Agreement were signed in 1992, a significant number of those who had been repatriated found their way back to former host countries. There they established themselves legally or, in most cases, settled down clandestinely or illegally.

In addition to the poor economic performance of Mozambique, the cyclic and persistent natural disasters that annually erode the country’s economic and social fabric further degrade conditions. The eagerness to improve living standards prompts many Mozambicans to migrate, preferably to the three most immediate neighbouring countries, without taking into account what may happen to them there.

Shortly after the repatriation of Mozambican refugees from neighbouring countries were completed in the early 1990s, former host countries started to express concern. Criminal incidents were reported in which Mozambicans were supposed to be the main perpetrators.

It did not matter whether or not the involvement of Mozambican citizens in these alleged crimes was proven. The argument served well to justify the compulsory repatriation of hundreds of Mozambican citizens from Swaziland and Zimbabwe, as well as from South Africa.

A common feature of these repatriations is that Mozambicans caught in police networks are sent back to Mozambique without being allowed to take along anything of the scarce belongings they managed to accumulate over many years of hard work, because they were considered to be ‘illegal immigrants’. Notwithstanding the fact that some of them have lived in these countries for more than ten years, are married to locals and have families, they are confronted with the indifference and intolerance of the police and are deported.

In what could be considered as real human irrationality, Mozambicans who are brought back to Mozambique quite often return to the countries from where they were repatriated. This gives rise to a vicious cycle with no predictable end in sight.

Over the last years, many public protests were made about the abuses, despotism and arrogance shown by some members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in dealing with foreign citizens, especially Mozambicans living and working in South Africa. However, it was only when a videotape capturing brutal images of the use of illegal migrants for the training of police dogs was broadcast in 2000, that a wave of shock and repulsion swept through South African and Mozambican society. It transpired that, in this instance, the targets for the training conducted by six white South African police officers on the East Rand were three black Mozambicans.

The news not only shocked Mozambicans, but reverberated in the minds of civilised people throughout the world. It demonstrated that the end of apartheid did not necessarily mark the end of the ill-treatment of blacks.

Although this might have been a particularly macabre case that found its way onto the public stage, it is not an isolated incident. Mistreatment and violent malpractices occur regularly during repatriation. For example, an eye witness reported that, in a train travelling on 25 August 1999, several Mozambican citizens including the witness himself were asked to bribe the police officers and to jump from the train afterwards. Upon refusing to accept this ‘offer’, they were thrown out of the moving train and some sustained serious injury.

Recent data collected by the Associação dos Direitos Humanos e Desenvolvimento (DHD — the Mozambican Human Rights and Development Association) clearly portrays typical cases of repatriations and detentions, and demonstrates the severe human rights violations which still occur. An incident widely publicised by the South African media was the arrest of three Mozambicans in early 1999. Accused of having robbed and raped an elderly woman working for the UN/UNICEF, they were caught and detained. During their imprisonment, the Mozambicans — who proved to be innocent — had to face attacks by police dogs and ill-treatment by South African police officers.

Another case reported on 25 August 2000 refers to a Mozambican citizen, Felisberto Bufalo Nhacane, who worked on a farm belonging to a white South African farmer in Schagen, 20 kilometres from Nelspruit in Mpumalanga. Reliable sources reported to DHD that, after the farmer had been the victim of an assault in his residence, he contracted Lowveld Security Services (LPS), a private security company, to undertake further investigations. The security firm picked up Felisberto Nhacane and another Mozambican from their workplaces and brought them to the headquarters of the company in Schagen. The two were subsequently beaten and tortured with sticks and boots for about five hours. They were then taken from farm to farm so that they could identify the people to whom they would have sold the goods that they were accused of having stolen from their former employer. In addition, they were taken to their respective families where they were further brutally beaten in the presence of their wives and children. Finally, dogs were set on Felisberto Nhacane’s colleague and he was abandoned, unconscious, in the bush. Felisberto’s dead body was taken to Rob Ferreira Hospital in Nelspruit. The case was reported to the premier of Mpumalanga and the accused members of the security company are still awaiting trial in Nelspruit.

When DHD visited the repatriation camp at Lindela in South Africa, the organisation found the conditions there precarious. The lack of food and hygienic facilities seriously threaten the health situation of the interred Mozambicans.

The SAPS itself has reported cases of Mozambicans mysteriously disappearing from trains for repatriated people. On those missing people, the authorities responded as follows:

Repatriated people pay a certain sum of money to police officers so that they are left to escape.



Other repatriated people are thrown out while the train is in full motion.

These are practices that do not occur randomly, but have become common. It questions the degree of human rights observance within the SAPS.

The brutal behaviour of South African police officers when dealing with Mozambican citizens is not the only issue of concern. The SAPS still does not notify the Mozambican authorities of the imprisonment of Mozambican citizens. This lack of co-operation also leads to situations where non-Mozambicans are ‘accidentally’ repatriated to Mozambique. Claiming to be Mozambican provides the opportunity for other African nationals to have a short and easy way back into South Africa after repatriation to Mozambique, their alleged ‘home country’.

Another point of concern are the double standards shown by the South African media with regard to reporting on criminal cases involving Mozambicans. A tendency of media hostility and bias still prevails.

Efforts by the Mozambican state to put an end to the inhumane treatment of Mozambicans in neighbouring countries, in general, and in South Africa, in particular, have not had the desired effect.

DHD, with the support from the Mozambican public, as well as from both South African and international civil society, has therefore engaged in a campaign to condemn and expose such gross and cruel human rights violations. With the approval of the Mozambican authorities, petitions were even sent to the president of South Africa. Although the South African authorities and the UNHCR have acknowledged receipt of DHD’s request — apart from hundreds of signatures of personalities and ordinary citizens who share the same ideals and take part in the campaign — nothing has been done so far to change the status quo.

Members of the Mozambican community who are in South Africa must be treated humanely if they become involved in criminal cases and must be subject to trial by competent and impartial courts. Furthermore, Mozambican authorities should also be involved in the screening for repatriation of Mozambican nationals who are illegally in South Africa.