A farmer in Weipe complained to Human Rights Watch of police and military raids at the workers’ compound, mainly at night or early in the morning, during which workers were ill-treated. He related an incident of a military raid on the compound early one morning. A worker used his cellphone to call him and said, “Come and help. These people are chasing us at three in the morning. We have to work tomorrow.” The farmer commented, “The police want a surprise element. They are not handling these guys very humanely. Last week, they’ve been three times.” He also referred to an incident in which a policeman had torn up the identity document of a South African worker. The destruction of South African citizens’ identity documents and their arrest on suspicion of being undocumented migrants is reportedly a common problem that arises because police and army officers often rely on arbitrary procedures to identify undocumented foreigners and assume that some individuals with South African identity documents are foreigners using fraudulent documents.100 I have two workers—a brother who is a driver and a sister who works in the house. Last week a group of policemen came to the farm compound and one policeman tore up their ID documents. They have worked 15 years on the farm—longer than me.... The police took the man to the police station. They just released him. There was no case. They knew it. It cost the man R30 [US$4.26] to take the taxi back.101 This farmer’s African farm supervisor, a Zimbabwean who has worked on the farm for 13 years, said: “They want permit or passport. If you argue, they hit. They are also looking for cigarettes.”102 As well as violating provisions of the Immigration Act, assault in the process of arrest violates the constitutional right to personal freedom and security, including the right to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources and the right not to be treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way.103 Similar protections exist in Article 7 of the ICCPR.104 100 See, for example, Human Rights Watch, “‘Prohibited Persons.’” Human Rights Watch interview with a white commercial farmer, Weipe, April 24, 2006. Human Rights Watch interview with a Zimbabwean farm supervisor, Weipe, April 24, 2006. 103 The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, chapter 2, section 12. 104 General Comment 15 on “The Position of Aliens Under the Covenant” in United Nations Human Rights Instruments, Compilation of General Comments and General Recommendations adopted by the Human Rights Treaty Bodies, HRI/GEN/1/Rev4, February 7, 2000, p. 98, para. 7, states that the ICCPR obligations apply to any foreign national in the territory of a state party, except those rights recognized in the ICCPR, which are expressly applicable only to citizens (Article 25). 101 102 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOLUME 18, NO. 6(A) 26