Deportees not infrequently die in Lindela; in just one week in October 2004, eleven deportees died, four of them from Zimbabwe.163 The question needs to be asked why people this ill are being arrested by the police and taken to a detention centre in the first place. According to Lawyers for Human Rights, Lindela and Home Affairs have undertaken not to arrest for deportation, or to keep in detention people who are very ill. It is inhumane and not in accordance with international obligations towards refugees to detain and deport people who are extremely ill and likely to die during this process. This situation also clearly exacerbates the already obvious problem of people contracting illnesses while in detention. LHR reported to us that Lindela has in the past failed to inform the appropriate consulate of these deaths, and has failed to give names and details of the dead to LHR, meaning that bodies remain unclaimed and eventually end up in paupers’ graves at the hospital near Lindela. A further complicating factor is that people who are detained, especially if they are political refugees, frequently give false names for fear of being on a list that goes to Zimbabwean authorities. To trace who is in Lindela, or who has died there, is not straightforward as a result. The deportation train Once a week or fortnight, depending on numbers in detention, a deportation train runs from Johannesburg to Musina 500km away on the Zimbabwe border. This train leaves Johannesburg with around 1,000 to 2,000 deportees on board, and arrives at Musina with several hundreds less. Deportees bribe guards on the train in order to be allowed to jump out of the windows en route - the closer to Johannesburg, the shorter the walk back and the higher the bribe required. Some jump to their deaths or end up with serious injuries, again an indicator of the desperateness with which people will try to avoid having to return to Zimbabwe.164 We interviewed some deported Zimbabweans on their return to Beitbridge. They reported that the police on the train assaulted the boys and men. Some female detainees reported that the boys had been punched, kicked and generally pushed around by the police en route for the border. Once more, the issue of deporting the very ill must be raised. Deportees from time to time die in this train in the process of deportation.165 Again, Lindela and Home Affairs have given lawyers assurances that this will not happen, but the ill continue to be deported. While carriages are set aside for the very ill to travel under less crowded conditions, there is no doctor or medical care on these trains. While Barry Gilder, Director General of Home Affairs stated in a television interview in 2003 that he would take measures to ensure medical support on this train, to date this has not in fact occurred.166 Some arrive back in Beitbridge barely alive and are admitted to hospital there. Deportation from Musina – holding conditions 163 South African Women in Migratory Affairs, an NGO that deals with refugees told us this. They had names and personal details of the deceased, and took us to view the corpse of one of the Zimbabweans and interview his family. 164 New York Times, November 2003, op cit, reports a death on the train that Michael Wines travelled on. Deportees interviewed have also reported deaths of people leaping from the train when it was moving, as did LHR. 165 This was reported to us by other Zimbabweans who personally knew of cases. Michael Wines of the New York Times reported in his article A long ride to nowhere, 2003, that a Zimbabwean died on the deportation train the night he travelled on it to Musina. 166 etv footage, 2003. 70