Immigration Laws: March, 2002 - Number #21

Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans are reportedly migrating to South Africa to escape food shortages, unemployment and political violence ahead of the March 9-10, 2002 elections. South African border guards have been apprehending about 1,000 Zimbabweans a week as they try to cross the wide and shallow Limpopo River. Police estimate that as many as 500 a day cross undetected, and the South African government is preparing a military base here to house as many as 70,000 refugees.

In 2000, 68,106 Zimbabweans were caught trying to cross into South Africa illegally, but only 42,939 were apprehended in 2001. They are returned by truck; one agent said: "Sometimes we catch the same people every day in the same week."

There are an estimated two to four million legal and illegal immigrants in South Africa; most are Zimbabweans and Mozambicans.

Great Lakes. A February 2002 report by the Rwandan government concluded that 1,074,017 people -- one-seventh of the country's population -- were killed during a genocide in the early 1990s; most of the victims were Tutsis. Human rights organizations have estimated that 500,000 to 800,000 people were killed during a three-month period in 1994.

Rwanda was a Tutsi kingdom that had been under German, then Belgian colonial rule before independence in 1962. In 1959, Hutus overthrew the monarchy, killing many Tutsis and driving thousands of others into exile. In the late 1980s, Uganda expelled Tutsi rebels it had been harboring, and they clashed with the Hutu-dominated army. Some 120,000 people are in prison in Rwanda awaiting trial on various charges connected with the killings.

The Danish government gave Zambia $156,000 to finance the repatriation of more than 200 illegal migrants, many from Congo and Somalia, in Zambian prisons.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees released a report in February 2002 that concluded locally hired UNHCR male staff in refugee camps often required girls in refugee camps in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to have sex in exchange for food and medicine for themselves and their families. UNHCR said it would use more women workers in the camps.

Kenya. Nairobi's airport is a hub for human trafficking. Hundreds of illegal immigrants from Somalia, Ethiopia, China, India and Sri Lanka are smuggled daily to Europe and the US. The immigrants use forged Kenyan, Ethiopian, British and Singaporean passports.

An independent investigation by a Kenyan newspaper revealed the human trafficking syndicate was run by powerful and wealthy people in collusion with immigration, intelligence and police officers based at the airport. Previously, the immigrants flew to Istanbul, Turkey, but when security was beefed up there they shifted to the Nairobi airport. Once in Europe or the US, they destroy their documents to conceal their country of origin to reduce the chance of deportation.

Egypt. Egypt's economy has been described as a faltering, state-managed dinosaur that has received $50 billion in aid and loans since making peace with Israel in 1978; an additional $10 billion in loans and aid has been pledged for the next three years.

The average income is about $1,300 a year, but more than half the population lives near or below the poverty line. Many young men want to emigrate.