What Happens To Zimbabwean Children Found Unaccompanied In South Africa?

South Africa’s Border Management Authority (BMA) has clarified its procedures for handling unaccompanied minors intercepted at ports of entry, following the discovery of six children hidden inside a taxi at the Beitbridge Border Post.

BMA Commissioner Michael Masiapato confirmed that when children are found travelling without documentation or adult supervision, they are immediately handed over to the Department of Social Development on the South African side.

Under this protocol, the minors are placed in a “place of safety,” where they are typically held for approximately 24 hours while their cases are processed.

The Commissioner explained that the primary objective is the swift reconciliation of children with their legal guardians.

To achieve this, South African officials engage directly with their Zimbabwean counterparts to verify the identities of the children and locate their parents.

Once the Zimbabwean Department of Social Development confirms a parent’s identity and relationship to the child, the minors are reconciled with their families.

The clarification follows a disturbing incident at the border where six children were found “stuffed” inside a vehicle on Monday, 6 April, in an attempt to bypass immigration controls.

Masiapato said: “We take those particular children and they are given to the Department of Social Development on the South African side. So, what the Department of Social Development will then do is to place them in a place of safety.

“They put them there so that they can be able to interact with their Zimbabwean counterparts, or any country’s counterparts who are responsible for social development, between the two, for the purposes of making sure that the country on the other side brings the parents of those particular children and be able to confirm, as a country, that indeed this particular mother is indeed the mother of this particular child.

“As South Africa, we can only release that child after the Department of Social Development on the Zimbabwean side has confirmed that indeed that particular person is the mother of that particular child. And then that is how the parents and the children get reconciled with their families.

“We do not deport children. And the reason why we do it this way is that if somebody claims that a child is theirs, we have no mechanism to prove that.

“It is only a country’s social development, where the people are coming from, where they will be able to enable us to give us assurance that yes, indeed, this is the mother, and we are able to get them reconciled.

“We do not keep them for long; it can be only for 24 hours, and then everything gets reconciled.”