Border Management Authority commissioner Dr Michael Masiapato conducted law enforcement operations for the return leg of the Easter period at the Beitbridge Port of Entry on Monday.
Image: Facebook/ Border Management Authority
Drones are assisting the Border Management Authority (BMA) in tackling illegal migration and the identification of facilitators leading illegal immigrants into South Africa.
BMA commissioner Dr Michael Masiapato emphasised the importance of deploying drones which have assisted them in enhancing the effectiveness of their operations.
Speaking at the Beitbridge Port of Entry on Monday, during the return leg of the Easter period, Masiapato said conducting their operations without drones is expensive and ineffective, primarily because they would just be patrolling.
“Now with the introduction of the drones, the most powerful part of it is we are able to monitor across the vulnerable segments. We are able to monitor in the port, but also on the corridor,” explained Masiapato.
“Now on the vulnerable segments, we are then able to effectively see when individuals are attempting to enter the country illegally.”
Regarding the situation in Beitbridge, Masiapato said: “So what we basically do is we allow them to come through, and as they come through, we are able to then send the coordinates to our border guards on the ground, obviously engaging with them through the Push-to-Talk devices that they have on the ground, and on that basis, they are able to go specifically where those individuals are, and they are able to get those people intercepted.
“It is for that reason that we can talk about 1 000 plus people that have been intercepted just in the past four days during this particular period. It is because of the assistance of those drones.”
Masiapato said they are looking at implementing a targeted approach where they identify facilitators for the issue of illegal migration and have them arrested.
He said illegal immigrants cannot walk in the bushes alone. If they are without facilitators, they will not cross because it is risky.
“Here is even more complicated, because you have the Limpopo River, so the facilitators in this instance include the people who put them into these boats, makeshift boats, and try to get them across the river. So those are the ones that we’re going to be dealing with,” explained Masiapato.
“Now the cycle can only be broken in that particular context and the drones are actually assisting us to do so.”
Masiapato said facilitators have always been problematic, so without technology, it was always difficult to be able to deal with them because they could not identify them.
Border Management Authority commissioner Dr Michael Masiapato (middle) conducted law enforcement operations for the return leg of the Easter period at the Beitbridge Port of Entry on Monday.
Image: Facebook/ Border Management Authority
“If you are not able to deal with the facilitator, you keep on moving in circles. Why? Because you deport everybody, and that will include facilitators,” Masiapato said.
“Now the game changer here is the technology, because what it does, it enables us to be able to identify a facilitator. How do we do that? We see them leading the charge in the bushes, but at the same time, we see them on the phone all the time, talking to the people that are supposed to carry these people into the country.
“When we arrest the facilitators, we don’t necessarily deport them, we take them to the police station in Musina, we make sure that we open a criminal case for aiding and abetting under Section 49(2) of the Immigration Act.”
Masiapato said the rest of the people can be deported.
“If we can succeed in dealing with these facilitators, we will actually have an impact as far as illegal migration is concerned,” Masiapato said.
thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za
