status.6 Officials’ attitudes to Zimbabwean asylum seekers help to explain why at the end of 2005 only 114 Zimbabweans had secured refugee status, while nearly 16,000 Zimbabweans had pending cases for refugee status.7 In 2003, South Africa’s new immigration law became operational. As in the 1990s, South Africa still seeks to control illegal migrants through deportations rather than pressure on employers to comply with immigration law.8 Its aggressive deportation policy, despite making substantial demands on financial and human resources, has not been able to stem the increase in illegal migrants. The number of deportations from South Africa has grown significantly in recent years, as Department of Home Affairs (DHA) statistics indicate: 44,225 (1988),9 96,515 (1993),10 151,653 (2002),11 approximately 155,000 (2003),12 167,137 (2004)13; although not made available to us, we were informed that there were still higher numbers for 2005.14 Zimbabwean migrants deported from South Africa have also increased rapidly—approximately 17,000 (2001),15 74,765 (2004),16 nearly 100,000 (2005).17 Rather than reflecting greater success in crafting immigration policy, these increases in deportations are more likely indicative of a 6 Ibid., p. 7. For further evidence of the particular vulnerability of Zimbabweans to abuse in the asylum process and to unlawful detention and deportation from Lindela detention center, see Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh and Emma Ramokhele, “Detention: The Lindela Repatriation Centre,” in Forced Migration Studies Programme with Lawyers for Human Rights and The Wits University Law Clinic, “Crossing Borders, Accessing Rights, and Detention: Asylum and Refugee Protection in South Africa,” p. 71; and Gayatri Singh, “Accessing Rights: Crisis and Corruption at the Rosettenville Refugee Reception Office,” in “Crossing Borders, Accessing Rights, and Detention,” p. 51. 7 The statistics are estimates provided by the Department of Home Affairs. “Introduction and Overview” in Forced Migration Studies Programme et al, “Crossing Borders, Accessing Rights, and Detention,” p. 17, refers to the backlog of cases and its dual effect of delaying protection to asylum seekers while opening the asylum system to abuse by those who wish to use the asylum process as a way to legalize their stay in South Africa. 8 “Shambles at Home Affairs escalates,” Business Day (South Africa), February 13, 2006, http://www.queensu.ca/samp/migrationnews/article.php?Mig_News_ID=2523&Mig_News_Issue=14&Mig_News _Cat=8 (accessed July 7, 2006). It notes that the 2002 Immigration Act sought to capture the white paper’s immigration enforcement strategy, a central feature of which was to put pressure on employers to comply with the law. However, the Department of Home Affairs instructed its officials that Parliament’s direction was unenforceable. 9 Loren B. Landau, Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, and Gayatri Singh, “Xenophobia in South Africa and Problems Related To It,” Background paper prepared for open hearings on “Xenophobia and Problems Related to It” hosted by the South African Human Rights Commission with the Portfolio Committee of the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs, Johannesburg, South Africa, November 2, 2004, Forced Migration Working Paper Series #13 (Johannesburg: Forced Migration Studies Programme, January 2005), p. 32. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. 12 International Organization for Migration (IOM), Current Migration Themes in Southern Africa: An IOM Perspective (Pretoria: IOM Regional Office for Southern Africa, May 2005), http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0001355/index.php (accessed July 9, 2006), p. 4, citing DHA figures. 13 Ramjathan-Keogh and Ramokhele, “Detention: The Lindela Repatriation Centre” in Forced Migration Studies Programme et al., “Crossing Borders, Accessing Rights, and Detention,” p. 70. 14 Human Rights Watch interview with South African immigration officer, Beitbridge, South Africa-Zimbabwe border, April 28, 2006. 15 Landau, Ramjathan-Keogh, and Singh, “Xenophobia in South Africa and Problems Related To It,” p. 32. 16 Tara Polzer, “Crossing Borders: Asylum Seekers at the Zimbabwean & Mozambican Frontiers” in Forced Migration Studies Programme et al., “Crossing Borders, Accessing Rights, and Detention,” p. 38. 17 UN Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Support Office (UNRIACSO), Southern African Humanitarian Crisis update (UNRIACSO, January 13, 2006), http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2006/riacso-safrica13jan.pdf (accessed July 9, 2006); refers to nearly 100,000 deportees in 2005, citing media quoting the DHA. 9 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOLUME 18, NO. 6(A)