How illegal immigration and cross-border crime threaten South Africa’s future

South Africa is being hollowed out by illegal immigration and cross-border crimes such as human trafficking, drug smuggling, arms trafficking, vehicle theft, livestock theft, and illicit goods, among others, stemming from porous borders, according to experts.

However, the biggest source of porosity comes from state actors, such as immigration officers, the military, and border policing, who are being corrupted and taking bribes from criminal syndicates, and allowing illicit goods into the country.

Willem Els, a senior training coordinator in the ENACT organised crime programme at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said South African borders are some of the most porous in the region, and there is a whole illicit economy centred around illegal immigration that is being facilitated by the porosity of the country’s borders.

“In South Africa, our land borders are extremely porous. Illegal cigarettes, counterfeit goods, and drugs mostly come through official borders at the Lebombo bridge and so on. At the ports of entry in airports, some immigration officials are corrupt and taking bribes from criminal syndicates. For instance, when people come into the country, they have passports. And whenever you have a passport, it must be scanned and registered in the system to record that someone has come to South Africa. 

“But the corrupt officials take the passport and stamp it. After taking the money, they don’t scan the passport, which leaves the country with no record of that person entering South Africa. So, it is that type of corruption that is eating away our livelihood because of the crime issue that is affecting everyone, and it’s really hurting the economy,” Els said. 

He warned that the illicit economy is growing so large that it might one day even exceed the formal economy in some areas, which would harm the country and the economy because no taxes are being collected from the illicit economy. The tax can only be collected from the formal economy.

The taxes are paid for the poor and other services. These people are coming here and benefiting from everything without contributing, and they are taking the money out of South Africa and sending it back to their countries. This is draining our economy, Els said. 

“Also, if you are a terrorist and you are meant to be on the watch list of the Interpol, etc., you are not going to use a normal port to run, you are going to cross the river. So, we don’t know how many terrorists are in South Africa, because we don’t have the record of that. The only way you can have records is if records are officially captured.

“If you look at the illegal migration people, many of them are of military age. The Ethiopians, for instance, quite a few of them were arrested in South Africa in the past year, more than 100 at the time. The challenge is that these individuals pose a threat due to their military background.

“We know nothing about them because it has not been captured. So it creates a real uncertainty environment within law enforcement if we don’t have all those facts. It’s creating challenges for us because we cannot pre-empt any threat, and also when we have to react to a threat, we still don’t know what we are faced with,” Els said.

He added that what has been found with the arrested illegal immigrants, especially from Ethiopia, is that it takes them up to three months, sometimes three years, to reach South Africa. Some walk to South Africa. Some pay up to $12 000 (just over R200,000) to the syndicates to smuggle them into South Africa.

And then just before they reach South Africa, they are ambushed and all their passports and their money and everything stolen, and then they are trafficked into South Africa, and sold by these criminal syndicates to work in illicit jobs or forced into the sex industry.

In an African context, many illegal migrants come from Zimbabwe, but some originate from Sudan, Somalia, and other countries. So, we can’t just look at the Southern African Development Community; we have to look at the rest of Africa and enforce our regional cooperation with them to curb this problem. 

So, there is a whole illicit economy centred around illegal immigration, but all that is being facilitated by the porosity of our borders, he added. 

According to the recent Numbeo Crime Index, South Africa is the most crime-affected country on the African continent, with a crime index score of 74.7, and ranked fifth in the world.

Els said criminality is through the roof, and it is also reflected in the crime statistics. 

“So we are not saying that all the crimes are committed by foreigners, but when you are South African, you have an ID or driver's licence, and your biometrics are captured, including fingerprints. However, with the undocumented foreign nationals, we don’t have anything. Whenever the police are investigating, they use physical evidence like fingerprints or something like that, but with undocumented foreigners, police have got nowhere to go, and that is a problem when investigating criminal cases where foreign nationals are involved,” he said. 

But why such a large influx of illegal immigrants to South Africa?

Els said most people on the African continent see South Africa as the land of milk and honey, and yet “we” all know what the situation is with the jobs and unemployment in this country.

“South Africa has got the infrastructure, a developed system, and all things that make it conducive for growth for people who work to make money, and also for the criminals to come to South Africa and exploit our systems to launder money, etc.

“The problem with illegal immigrants is that once the people are in the country, they become that country’s problem. If we cannot prevent them from coming into the country, it is now entirely our problem. So, we allow them to become our challenges, and then this costs money, costs effort,” he said.

Els added that political will is crucial to stop porous borders, along with a better coordination strategy with other state entities, sufficient budget, capacity building (human capital, ensuring people are trained), and investing in technology.

“We need to tackle corruption as the number one enemy. We can have a comprehensive counter-corruption strategy with consequences; people found guilty of corruption must be fired or receive a warning. We should come down hard on corruption. There should be consequences. Corrupt officials should serve jail time,” Els said. 

He added that Dr Leon Schreiber, minister of Home Affairs, has demonstrated political will to curb these problems since taking office over a year ago.

Actions such as Operation New Broom have been promising through utilising technology for enhanced enforcement of immigration issues, digitisation, and biometric data, while not circumventing suspects’ rights.

He said that it will take a long time, effort, money, and hard work to turn the ship around because the problem has reached high levels.

Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, founder of March and March civic organisation, whose members have embarked on nationwide protests blocking illegal immigrants from accessing services in public healthcare facilities, saying that the government is not prioritising its citizens, said the government is not serious about fighting illegal immigration.  

The South African Human Rights Commission criticised the protests.

“If the government is serious about fighting illegal immigration, it must seal the borders and do mass deportations. One thing that is going to make sure that everyone who is not here has no opportunity to abuse our system and our country is to close all the taps, in terms of schooling, medical care, jobs, and all other services. South Africans must take priority. 

“Illegal immigrants must go to the private sector healthcare facilities, pay, and take care of themselves. If this is to be effected, there will never be people rushing to this country if they know that there are strict laws. The government must also put stringent laws on employers who are employing undocumented foreigners, and there must be a hefty penalty, like taking away operating licences, jail time, etc,” Ngobese-Zuma said.

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) called on the government to get back to basics, secure its borders, and protect the country from external forces, as porous borders are a symptom of the abdication of this responsibility.

Makone Maja, IRR’s strategic engagements manager, said South Africans’ frustrations with the presence of illegal immigrants seem to be closely linked to the lack of economic growth, job opportunities, and improvement in government services. 

“The mounting pressures on social services from health to education, and the sense from disgruntled citizens that more services would be catered to them if they weren’t being shared with illegal foreigners. 

“The government’s neglect of enforcing the immigration laws has also led to this frustration and the itch for communities to take the law into their own hands. This also need not be. Any democratic government’s first duty is to secure its borders and protect its country from external forces,” Maja said.

A request for comment was sent to the Department of Home Affairs over a week ago, but there was no response. Reminders were also ignored.

gcwalisile.khanyile@inl.co.za