South Africa beefs up security to stop illegal entries

South Africa hopes its Border Management Authority (BMA) will help to strengthen the country's borders and prevent the illegal entry of people and goods into the country. 

The migration route from the Horn of Africa to South Africa is popular, with porous borders along the way that have become transit hubs for undocumented migrants.

Ethnic tensions, political persecution and environmental disasters haveforced millions to flee their homes in recent years, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Many migrants who have made it to South Africa have faced threats of xenophobic violence from locals accusing them of stealing jobs and causing crime.

Destination South Africa

However, the South African government insists that its new border agency is not designed to shut out migrants but to protect its borders. "Every country I know in the world is interested to know what is going on at their borders, what is coming in and what is going out," South African Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told DW. 

"So, we are not about to apologize to anybody for deploying border guards to do what other nations of the world are doing."

Dr. Mike Masiapato, the BMA's commissioner, told DW that the new agency's responsibility was "to facilitate and manage the legitimate movement of persons at the ports of entry as well as at the border enforcement area. [...] We have to facilitate the movement of trade across our ports of entry as well as the border enforcement area." 

He explained the roles of the various enforcement agencies that operate at the border. "The responsibility of the defense force is to ensure border protection. They have to ensure border safeguarding but at the same time they have the responsibility of protecting the country's territorial integrity," he said, adding that the police also played an important function. "It's about crime prevention and about combating crime."

"When you look at the border management service you will realize that members of the police service have been deployed at the port environment to do what we call 'border access control' so that responsibility as per the border management act belongs to the members or officers of the Border Management Authority."

But not everybody is convinced that the new agency will succeed. Freeman Bhengu, a member of the Sisonke Peoples Forum, a grassroots organization that works to make South Africa a better country, doesn't expect it to be able to deal with the current immigration crisis. "They are short on budget, they are corrupt, and they are incompetent," he told DW. "We don't see anything good coming out of them. They need to be disbanded and we feel soldiers need to be deployed to all our borders." 

Regional economies need development 

Ngqabutho Mabhena, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Community in South Africa, has welcomed the new border authority, but he told DW that it was not the solution to illegal immigration. "As long as the economies of the region are not developed at least to the level of the South African economy, we are going to continue to have these challenges where migrants from neighboring countries want to go to South Africa for greener pastures," he said.

Darren Olivier, the director of the African Defence Review, an independent media organization focused on conflict and defense, said that the tackling of illegal migration went beyond border control.

"It is an impossible task unless you solve problems that force people to want to leave their countries, things like economic collapses, conflicts and all sorts of issues," he said. "There is a limit to what is possible through intelligence or through patroling. The only answer to this is to improve conditions in the countries north of us."

South African authorities say that since the establishment of the new agency, 139 stolen vehicles have been intercepted and 35,000 people have been prevented from entering South Africa illegally. 

Isaac Kaledzi contributed to this article, which was adapted from a radio report broadcast on DW's daily radio show AfricaLink