South Africa’s (SA) Home Affairs Department says the establishment of specialised immigration courts will help ease overcrowding in the country’s prisons.
The department says the lengthy deportation process means that undocumented foreign nationals are held for long periods in detention centres, contributing to overcrowding.
SA President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the establishment of the courts in his address on Sunday, where he outlined measures to tackle illegal migration in the country.
Home Affairs Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza says the courts will help speed up deportation processes.
“We really welcome the introduction of the specialised immigration courts. As you will know, for deportation processes to be completed, we have to make sure we arrest the person, working with the police, and then we have to take them to a magistrate’s court because that’s what the law requires us to do. Only then can we start effecting deportations, which means that we incur a lot of costs at Lindela while still holding this person and taking them through the legal system. So those specialised immigration courts will help us a lot,” says Nzuza.
–ChannelAfrica–
