The Border Management Authority of South Africa, headed by Commissioner Mike Masiapato, recently revealed that over a 10-day period during the Easter holidays, nearly 4,000 people were intercepted while attempting to enter the country illegally.
Out of those intercepted, 2,403 individuals did not possess any documents at all, while 1,019 were refused entry for being undesirable and 419 were found inadmissible for various reasons.
Commissioner Masiapato stated that the majority of those arrested without documents were intercepted at the vulnerable segments of the border. These individuals were processed, declared undesirable for a period of five years, and subsequently deported.
On the other hand, most of the inadmissible individuals were found with invalid passports, fraudulent visas, or failed to produce relevant documents such as valid yellow fever certificates, particularly those travelling from yellow fever endemic countries.
Commissioner Masiapato further highlighted the effectiveness of the border guards, stating that since their deployment, the authority has managed to intercept and stop more than 281,000 individuals who attempted to enter South Africa illegally.
During the Easter period, security at the borders was significantly strengthened. Commissioner Masiapato mentioned that 400 junior border guards were deployed at certain land ports to assist in sanitizing the border environment and ensuring the smooth facilitation of the legitimate movement of people and goods across the ports.
On a positive note, the authority observed a reduction in the number of undocumented and unaccompanied minors arriving at South African ports of entry during the Easter period. However, on March 28, around five children were intercepted at the Beitbridge port of entry. These children were handed over to the Department of Social Development, who then worked with their Zimbabwean counterparts to process their return to Zimbabwe and reunite them with their respective families.
Another incident involved a woman attempting to exit South Africa to the Democratic Republic of Congo via Botswana with a child. The woman did not have a passport but was carrying an emergency travel document issued by the embassy of the DRC. The child, however, was completely undocumented. Both the woman and the child were handed over to the Department of Social Development, who processed and took them to a place of safety in Limpopo.
South Africa’s borders were busier this year compared to the previous year. The Border Management Authority facilitated the movement of 1,136,250 travellers across 71 ports of entry during the 10-day Easter period. In the same period last year, 913,859 travellers were processed, indicating an increase of over 222,000 travellers this year.
Commissioner Masiapato highlighted that the top three ports of entry in terms of processing the majority of travellers were OR Tambo International Airport, Lebombo port of entry to Mozambique, and Beitbridge port of entry to Zimbabwe, with a total of 528,042 travellers processed.
OR Tambo facilitated the most travellers at 217,855, followed by Lebombo at 157,069 and Beitbridge at 153,118 travellers.
Furthermore, many holidaymakers opted for ship cruises this year. The authority noted an increase in the number of holidaymakers boarding cruise ships at Cape Town Harbour, bound for various destinations.
In terms of facilitation, the authority processed 36,675 private vehicles, 1,893 minibus taxis, and 1,309 buses. Additionally, over 2,621 aircraft were processed at various international airports. For the sea modality, approximately 252 vessels were processed across seaports, with 119 of them being for crew changes through the off-port limit mechanism. This mechanism facilitates crew changes for vessels that have not docked at the port.
Commissioner Masiapato emphasized the implementation of proactive preventive measures to detect non-compliance with set port protocols and ensure the speedy detection of any non-compliant activities.
