her husband and his fellow prisoners. The beatings were so brutal that one of the prisoners had lost consciousness. He was arrested as a border jumper when returning from a trip to Zimbabwe. When they arrived at Bietbridge, there were no officers to sign for them so they could not be deported. His wife lost all contact with him after this and was forced to go to Lindela Detention Centre on the outskirts of Johannesburg to learn of his ultimate fate. After questioning the police for some time, she was told that her husband had never been transferred to Lindela and that he was likely still at the police station. Sibongile spoke to family in Zimbabwe and was told that her husband had still not arrived home. Throughout this trying period, she had absolutely no contact with Samuel as his cell phone had been confiscated when he was arrested and none of the numbers that he had previously used to contact her were working. Sibongile knew that her husband would have contacted her had he been freed. She was extremely concerned about the torture that her husband may be subjected to in prison. Another week later, Samuel returned to Bulawayo, with severe injuries, this being over two weeks after his initial arrest. The other man caught with him was so severely beaten he did not survive. iii. Refugee Reception Centre in Musina Similar to other reception centres around the country, people sleep outside the Refugee Centre in the hope of getting served the next morning. The operational forum has shelters available, but most interviewed outside the centre reported that people had been robbed at these shelters and they felt safer sleeping outside the reception centre as a collective. A Paralegal who works on the ground for the Musina Legal Advice Office, confirmed reports we had heard outside the Musina Reception Centre; that asylum seekers who came from overseas, (ex. Pakistan, Bangladesh, China etc) are being asked to produce their passports or explain how they made it so far without passports. If they can not produce a passport, they will not be granted asylum. It is neither procedure nor common practice to request that the asylum seeker produce their passport in order to apply for asylum. Unfortunately we were not able to quantify this, as this was a qualitative question asked after it had been raised by other interviewees. iv. Xenophobia in Musina/Beitbridge The Musina-Beitbridge area is not a very large metropolitan area, and proportionally the number of foreign nationals in the towns is high. There are frequent and targeted raids of Zimbabweans and other foreign nationals which is fostering Afrophobic tensions. In Musina the word “Zimbabwean” is used by South Africans with a negative connotation; someone who does something socially unacceptable—stealing, smelling or begging is referred to negatively as being “Zimbabwean”. The severity of the anti foreigner sentiment is shown in the formation of their anti-crime coalition that is responsible for conducting, among other things, immigration raids and arrests. The “Musina Youth Against Crime” and “Community Policing Forum” has been formed to combat crime. The South African Police Service Page for Musina, a website which provides updates to the community from the Musina Police, described a recent raid 40

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