Human Rights Watch spoke to a 29-year-old Zimbabwean from Bulawayo who had been en route to Johannesburg in a taxi with about fifteen others with whom he had illegally crossed the border when he had been arrested in Makhado the previous day. They had been taken first to Makhado (Louis Trichardt) police station and then to Musina police station, where they had arrived the previous evening at around six. Dinner had already been served. He told us, “Yesterday one person was allowed to go buy bread using our own money. Those who had money contributed for everybody. We had three loaves of bread amongst us. We have had no food this morning.”116 This was the second time he was being deported in eight days. The first time he had been arrested in Johannesburg, where he had held the same job in a construction company since 2000. He had been arrested after trying to run away from a shoot-out. Having cleared him of any involvement in the shooting incident, the police asked for his ID: “They took me to Brixton police station on Saturday. At Brixton I was treated okay, except for not having food, except for Monday [when] they gave us four slices of bread. On Monday, they released me and put me in Lindela.” Three Zimbabweans walking along the Tshipise road, hoping to get a ride to Johannesburg, told Human Rights Watch that they had been arrested by immigration officials at Beitbridge border post where they had entered with passports but without visas, which they said they could not afford. They had been taken from the border post to Musina police station, where they claimed that they had spent three days without receiving any food. They said that they had escaped in the night while the police were asleep.117 A police official at Makhado police station volunteered to Human Rights Watch that male and female detainees awaiting deportation were kept separately but that female detainees were kept together with people facing criminal charges: “They sleep in the police cells, males and females separately. The female ones are mixed with the criminals—we have only one cell for females. The male illegals are kept separate from criminals.”118 It is a violation of the Immigration Regulations to keep detainees awaiting deportation with criminals. At Makhado police station, Human Rights Watch learned that there were two children in the cell with the adult men. The two boys, age 15 and 17, were from Chipinge, Zimbabwe, and had been arrested on the road to Pretoria, where they lived with 116 Human Rights Watch interview with a Zimbabwean detainee awaiting deportation, Musina police station, Musina, April 28, 2006. 117 Human Rights Watch interview with three undocumented Zimbabweans, on the Tshipise road, April 30, 2006. 118 Human Rights Watch interview with a police official, Makhado police station, April 29, 2006. 31 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOLUME 18. NO. 6(A)