access to health care. While many organizations seem to be involved in raising awareness around the Zimbabwean crisis through workshops, papers and research, there is an urgent need to supplement this with services on the ground to help those on the receiving end of the crisis. Method of compiling the report: data sources Data collection: relevant issues The vast majority of Zimbabweans who have arrived in South Africa in the last four years are considered illegal immigrants.6 Very few have any official status. Working with a community that is both hugely diverse and living underground, limits the nature of the investigations that are possible. For example, it is not easy in such a situation to work with randomized samples of people in order to arrive at statistically sound conclusions based on structured questionnaires. Zimbabweans in South Africa have an unknown demographic profile and are of an unknown number. It is our experience that this group is very mobile. Individuals mostly have no fixed address for any length of time, which makes follow up interviews difficult, and the circumstances in which people find themselves change rapidly. Issues of confidentiality are of particular importance when dealing with persons who feel insecure and at risk of deportation. There are also ethical issues in working with a very underprivileged group that has limited access to essential services such as health. It is problematic to identify people who need rehabilitative services and merely to note the problem. Some individuals who came forward to be interviewed are living in situations of severe deprivation and even under threat.7 Wherever possible, individuals with specific needs have been passed on to local NGOs and health professionals. The information in this report has been compiled over the course of one year from: • A desk study of media and human rights reports on the causes of the mass exodus of Zimbabweans since 2000, including available information on the number of Zimbabweans in the diaspora, and the impact of this mass emigration both in Zimbabwe and in the region. • A review of the laws and international obligations in relation to refugees in South Africa. • More than two hundred interviews by the authors with Zimbabwean refugees, mainly in Johannesburg but also in Durban and Musina. We interviewed a range of Zimbabweans who claim to have left for political reasons; political abuses including torture, forced conscription into the youth militia, property destruction, displacement. In some cases, individuals were followed up over time. • Six field visits to observe the refugee reception offices in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, during late 2003 and then one visit to Rosettenville, Johannesburg, in October 2004, in 6 There is a large group of Zimbabweans who have been resident or semi resident migrant workers in South Africa for the last twenty years: this group is dealt with as a separate entity ahead in this report. 7 For example, one eighteen year old girl reported she was in an abusive relationship and dealing with daily rape by a South African man she depended on for a roof over her head, having no other family or friends in South Africa. She is ineligible for help from any social services in South Africa as she is illegally in the country, and if she goes to the police, she will be deported. 16