Children intercepted near Beitbridge are handed over to the Department of Social Development, the Border Management Agency has clarified.
Image: BMA
The Border Management Authority (BMA) says undocumented minors intercepted at South Africa’s ports of entry are handed over to social services and are not deported, following several incidents involving children over the Easter weekend.
BMA Commissioner Michael Masiapato provided a detailed account of the protocol, emphasising that the Department of Social Development takes responsibility for the children immediately after interception.
“When it comes to the intercepted minors within a port of entry, we take those children and they are given to the Department of Social Development on the South African side,” said Masiapato.
He said the department places the children in temporary safe care facilities while officials engage with their counterparts in the country of origin.
According to Masiapato, authorities from both countries work together to verify the identity of parents or guardians before any reunification takes place.
“What they then do is to compare notes between the two for the purpose of making sure that the country on the other side brings the parents of those children and confirms that indeed this particular mother is the mother of this child,” he said.
He stressed that South Africa does not release children until confirmation is received from the relevant foreign social development authorities.
“As South Africa, we can only release that child after the Department of Social Development on the Zimbabwean side has confirmed that that particular person is the mother of that child,” he said.
Masiapato added that the process is designed to protect children from trafficking and unlawful claims.
“We do not deport children. And the reason why we do it this way is because if somebody claims that a child is theirs, we have no mechanism to prove that,” he said.
He said the verification process is typically concluded within a short timeframe.
“We do not keep them for long. It can be only for 24 hours and then everything gets settled,” he said.
The clarification comes after multiple incidents involving undocumented minors were recorded over the Easter period. In one case, 12 children were separated from their parents after a bus carrying 32 undocumented Zimbabwean nationals was stopped at a roadblock on the N1 near Bloemfontein. In a separate incident, six children were intercepted at the Beitbridge border post while allegedly being smuggled into South Africa.
For more stories from The Mercury, click the link THE MERCURY