The London-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch says Zimbabwean and other immigrants in South Africa have been experienced an increasing level of mistreatment and harassment by police and military personnel there.
Based on a study conducted in April-May this year in South Africa’s Limpopo Province - on the border with Zimbabwe formed by the Limpopo River - the report says migrant workers with and without documents are frequently arrested and detained in violation of laws. The report said they are also frequently deprived of fair wages.
The Human Rights Watch report observed that at least 100,000 Zimbabweans - and the actual number could be higher - were deported from South Africa last year.
An official in the Independent Complaints Directorate, a South African government office that monitors police, said migrants are free to report abuse.
But Tiseke Kasambala of Human Rights Watch, a Zimbabwe specialist, told reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyele of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that fear of deportation tends to keep most immigrants experiencing abuse from filing formal complaints.
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