number of corporate workers hired, the corporate permit is cheap; individual work
permits cost R1,520 each.38 The corporate permit holder must ensure that the passport
(or the ETD) of the foreigner is valid at all times, that the foreigner is employed only in
the specific position for which the permit has been issued, and that the foreign worker
departs from South Africa upon completion of the job.39
The International Organization for Migration and Zimbabwean
migrants
At the end of May 2006, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) opened a
reception and support center on the Zimbabwean side of the South Africa-Zimbabwe
border at Beitbridge. The center, funded by the British government’s Department for
International Development, is an inter-ministerial project that will involve the
Zimbabwean ministries of health, home affairs, and labor and social welfare.40 The
center will also house offices for these ministries.41 A major objective of the center is to
provide humanitarian assistance to the growing number of Zimbabwean migrants
deported from South Africa. IOM offers all deportees a free meal, medical assessments
and information materials on HIV and irregular migration, and entitlement to free basic
health care at Beitbridge Hospital upon referral. In addition, the IOM offers free
transport and a food pack to deportees who choose to return to their homes.42 The
program will also assist the government of Zimbabwe to cope with social problems in
Beitbridge that are related to the growing concentration of deportees in the town.
In coordination with the Department of Social Welfare in Zimbabwe, the IOM intends
to establish an agency “which will facilitate the placement of qualified Zimbabweans
(above 18 years and with passports) on commercial farms in Limpopo province of South
Africa.”43 In correspondence, the IOM said it will work with nongovernmental
organizations like Nkuzi Development Association, to “ensure that those Zimbabweans
who choose to work on commercial farms do so legally and are treated fairly.”44
38
Regulations on Fees, June 27, 2005, section 2,
http://www.dha.gov.za/documents/IMMIGRATION%20REGULATIONS%20FEES.pdf (accessed July 9, 2006).
39
Immigration Regulations, 2005, Section 3. Section 21(2)(b) of the Immigration Act, 2002, makes employers
bear the primary responsibility for monitoring the workers’ compliance with the provisions of the corporate
permit and the Immigration Act.
40
SAMP, “Deportees now destitute,” Zimbabwe Situation, March 17, 2006, in Migration News, March 2006,
http://www.queensu.ca/samp/migrationnews/nws_sum.php?Mig_News_Issue=15 (accessed July 25, 2006).
41
Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Nicola Simmonds, IOM, Harare, April 19, 2006, with
attachment “Humanitarian Assistance for Deportees” (undated).
42
“The IOM Reception and Support Centre in Beitbridge”, in IOM Harare Newsletter, No.3, July 2006; Human
Rights Watch email correspondence with Nicola Simmonds, IOM, Harare, June 27, 2006.
43
Ibid.
44.
Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Nicola Simmonds, IOM, Harare, June 12, 2006.
15
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOLUME 18, NO. 6(A)
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