Beyond the terror inflicted on non-nationals, people forced to leave mid-treatment have lost access to critical treatment, carrying clinical risks that will outlast the processing centres.
On 29 June, public health professionals warned that the unlawful “30 June” deadline set by anti-migrant groups risked triggering a public health emergency. That warning has materialised: in just over a week, the government processed tens of thousands of people – driven from their homes by violence or the threat of it – through the Musina Temporary Repatriation Processing Centre and the Beitbridge border post. This process has been blind to people’s humanity, reducing them to numbers, ignorant of the lives that have been thrown into upheaval.
Ministers have presented the pace of this operation as proof of success. But speed of removal is not evidence that a crisis has been addressed. Instead, it disregards people’s rights, health and dignity – including the constitutional right to healthcare, which carries no documentation requirement. Throughout the process, none of these rights has been protected. The evidence shows the government is failing, and the cost will be paid in broken treatment courses and new injuries long after the buses stop running.
In response, Healthcare Workers Against Xenophobia have released a statement endorsed by 33 organisations.
A crisis of the government’s own making
The unlawful deadline set by March and March,…
