Press Release |
Police Commissioners Irresponsibly Inflate Numbers; Blame Foreigners for Security Woes
Provincial Police Commissioners have argued that, ‘illegal immigrants are stretching police resources and manpower.’ In their presentation to the Parliament on Tuesday, the Commissioners claimed that the government does not budget for the "millions" of illegal immigrants who have to be policed. Simon Pember, acting chief of police in Gauteng, went on to inform Parliament that there are up three million immigrants in Gauteng alone with the implication that foreigners are to blame for continued insecurity in the Province and, by implication, across the country.
These statements by the Provincial Police Commissioners are dangerous and misleading. The police may be right that they—along with many other government departments—do not have adequate support to protect a growing population. They are also right that attempting to regulate international migrants—legal and undocumented—diverts their attention from building a safer South Africa. Where the Commissioners have seriously erred is on the numbers of migrants for which they are responsible; in suggesting that migrants are to blame for the crime rate; and that border control is the answer. Their fabrication and misleading testimony not only risks heightening xenophobic sentiments but distracts us from the real issue of why the police are not doing their job.
Making up the numbers
The acting Gauteng Provincial Police Commissioner claims there are up to 3 million illegal immigrants in Gauteng. According to data from Statistics South Africa, that would represent almost 30% of the Province’s total population: 3 out of 10 people. Using the same official data, researchers at the Forced Migration Studies Programme found that the international migrants account for only 5% to 6% of Gauteng’s residents. This translates into about 580,000, nowhere near the millions the police suggest. Let us not forget this number also includes medical professionals, lawyers, teachers, bankers, and engineers. Migration is a concern for the Province, but it is the close to 3.9 million Gauteng residents born elsewhere that should raise flags. But one can hardly argue that citizens are not entitled to the services the police provide.
At a national level, the 2007 Community Survey by Statistics South Africa—the most recent and most accurate data available—found the total number of foreign-born residents (including South African citizens) at just over 1.2 million or 2.79% of the total population. That number has undoubtedly increased in the last three years, but the numbers are still likely to be under 2 million, and that is for the whole country. Unless the police have conducted their own survey, they are evidently fabricating the numbers to suit their purposes.
The Unnecessary Expense of Immigration Policing
We should not let the Police Commissioners’ prevarications and fabrications distract us from the reality that they do spend far too much of their time and money on policing non-nationals. In a report issued in September 2009 (One Burden Too Many? A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Immigration Policing in Gauteng), researchers at the Forced Migration Studies Programme found that despite instructions from senior officials that immigration enforcement is not a priority, the police spend approximately one quarter (26%) of its human resource budget on immigration policing. According to the researchers’ conservative estimates, this means that SAPS Gauteng spends approximately R 350 million per annum on immigration policing. And this with no evidence that foreigners are disproportionately involved in criminal activity. To be sure, as the size of the country’s population increases, so to will the risk of crime. However, these are absolute, not relative gains. For all of the time the police spend chasing foreigners, they are convicted of crimes and a rate no higher than the South African citizens amongst whom they live.
Why closing the border is not the solution
Thulani Ntobela, chief of police in Mpumalanga, said he hopes the SANDF can soon start helping with border security, "because in some places there isn't even a fence". While more can be done at the border to prevent organised crime and human rights violations, military involvement is not a quick fix for SA’s immigration policy problems. Without a wholesale rethink of regional migration management, such initiatives will fail before the SANDF step out of their jeeps. For several years the government has been talking about a shift away from “immigration control” to “immigration management”. The point behind this shift is simple, but so commonly ignored it bears repeating: South Africa can not control human movement across the entire border line unless it is prepared to spend billions, act inhumanely against those trying to cross, and attract international condemnation for its efforts. Then again, if European border control initiatives and the United States’ 6 billion dollar fence are anything to go by, even this will not deter our determined neighbours.
The solution to the problems the police are facing is not stopping foreigners at the borders. For one, foreigners are such a small (and generally law abiding) minority, that this will do little to improve security or limit the overall burden facing police in all but a few select suburbs. Rather, the issue is to find ways of shifting policy so the police are not doing immigration control. This will begin with some form of liberalisation of immigration policy. The police are right in that we must do something about our borders, which can be violently unsafe and rife with extortion and corruption while doing little to protect the country’s territorial integrity. They are also right that they must be adequately supported in addressing the needs of the country’s growing urban population. However, blaming foreigners for their lack of success is just another case of scapegoating that will do little to make us all safer or more secure. Indeed, blaming foreigners will only continue detract attention from where police energy’s should be going: fighting crime.
For additional information or comment, contact:
Prof. Loren Landau
011 717 4038
083 453 4183
loren@migration.org.za
http://migration.org.za
