BMA sting prevents trafficking of 440 children into SA
A sting operation by the Border Management Authority on Saturday evening prevented the trafficking of more than 400 children from Zimbabwe into South Africa.
BMA Border Guards, working with the police and an anti-corruption team from the Department of Home Affairs, searched 42 buses at the Beitbridge border post.
In the buses they found about 443 children under the age of eight years travelling without parents or guardians.
At the official launch of the BMA in October, President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged that illegal immigration is a huge challenge for the country, saying that “a more secure border will help curb illegal immigration, as well as human trafficking and cross-border crime”.
The agency’s commissioner, Dr Michael Masiapato, briefed members of the media on their festive season plans in Pretoria on Sunday.
“Just last night, a sting operation conducted by the border guards, the Home Affairs anti-corruption team, and members of SAPS stopped and searched 42 buses at the Beitbridge border post and found about 443 children under the age of 8 who were travelling without parents or guardians being trafficked into South Africa. We denied them entry and activated the Zimbabwean officials to process them back into Zimbabwe,” said Masiapato.
“We have also put measures in place to detect and confiscate narcotics, contraband, illicit goods and even stolen vehicles.
“We therefore want to urge all travellers to desist from committing any act of criminality as they will be detected, arrested, declared undesirable and then deported.”
Masiapato added that motorists ignoring the rules of the road is a common problem.
“We would like to urge all drivers to desist from disregarding existing traffic laws, including instructions from the traffic officers on the ground, as that has the potential to cause traffic jams which poses serious challenges to traffic flow towards our ports of entry.
“This has been our common problem, in this period in particular, on the N1 towards Beitbridge border post to Zimbabwe and also on the N4 towards Lebombo border post to Mozambique. Therefore, drivers are encouraged to accordingly follow the queue and in no time, they will be assisted.
“So, in this period of 2023/24, we anticipate a full recovery to the pre-Covid average number of about six million people who are supposed to be moving out of our ports in this period,” said Masiapato.
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