ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION FUELS RISING CRIME

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GABORONE 000939

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

AF/S FOR MALONEY

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV SMIG KCRM PHUM ZI BC
SUBJECT: ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION FUELS RISING CRIME



1. (U) SUMMARY: With the situation in Zimbabwe growing
ever more desperate, illegal immigrants from there
continue to stream into Francistown, the largest city
near the border, at roughly the same rate as in 2004.
Desperation has fuelled a rising crime rate, particularly
theft and prostitution, which is being blamed on illegal
Zimbabwean immigrants. Interlocutors from the Botswana
Police Service, local government and civil society have
no evidence that Zimbabweans are being trafficked into or
through Botswana. Cross-border familial ties and the
demand for cheap labor will likely keep frustration with
rising crime from translating into demands that the GOB
will pressure the Mugabe regime for change. END SUMMARY.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION FROM ZIMBABWE CONTINUES


2. (U) Poloff visited Francistown week of June 28th to
update the situation. Zimbabweans continue to move back
and forth across the border with Botswana illegally, but
their numbers appear not to have increased significantly
so far this year. In a June 28 meeting, Officer
Commanding for District 1 (greater Francistown) Mr.
Boikhutso Dintwa told Poloff that police officers in his
district had arrested 2,110 illegal immigrants in May
2005, 2,003 in April, 1,751 in March, 1,156 in February
and 2,010 in January, virtually all Zimbabweans. He
described these numbers as roughly equal with those
recorded during the same time frame in 2004. In a
separate meeting, Commanding Officer at the Center for
Illegal Immigrants Mr. Diseko told Poloff that the number
of Zimbabweans passing through his facility so far this
year did not differ significantly from the previous year.
Mr. Dintwa indicated that on June 29 and 30, the GOB
would conduct the first "clean-up" campaign of the year
designed to round up illegal immigrants and deport them.
These operations typically occur on a quarterly basis, he
said.

IMMIGRANTS FUELING CRIME


3. (U) The incidence of crime in Francistown is rapidly
rising, Deputy Mayor Mrs. Rebecca Nshakazhogwe told
Poloff, that most residents blame the Zimbabwean illegal
immigrants. She and an assistant relayed a series of
anecdotes about instances in which they personally had
been victimized. Not only is crime becoming more common,
Nshakazhogwe explained, but also the perpetrators are
growing more aggressive. City residents have responded
by forming neighborhood watch committees and sometimes
resorting to vigilante justice. So far, however, this
has done little to contain the problem.


4. (U) According to Mr. Dintwa, most break-ins in the
city appear to be the work of Zimbabweans. Often, he
said, thieves will jump the border just after dusk and
walk through open fields into town. After breaking into
and pilfering from several houses, they will walk back
across the border before sunrise with their loot. The
GOB has discovered that the deployment of Botswana
Defense Force soldiers around the farms between
Francistown and the border tends to coincide with a
decrease in such robberies. The border is too long,
soldiers too few and costs to great to maintain such a
deployment indefinitely, however.

PRESSURE FOR HARDER LINE ON MUGABE NOT FORTHCOMING


5. (U) Despite the rising crime caused by illegal
immigration from Zimbabwe, the residents of Francistown
are not yet exerting significant pressure on the GOB to
alter its relationship the Mugabe regime. No public
meeting, regardless of its subject, can conclude without
someone expressing dire concern about illegal immigration
and the proliferation of crime in Francistown, District
Commissioner Mrs. Syliva Muzila told Poloff. Yet, she
estimated, at least one in four Francistown residents
house an illegal immigrant. Many of these are relatives
of Batswana who have opened their homes out of sympathy
for the plight of their kin in Zimbabwe.


6. (U) In addition to the familial bonds that span the
border, Francistown residents have found illegal
immigrants a convenient source of cheap labor. Mrs.
Muzila, who sits on a committee that reviews applications
for work permits in the district, indicated that almost
every application is for a Zimbabwean to work as a maid
or farm hand. For every farmer or house owner who goes
through official channels to obtain a work permit for an
unskilled laborer, there must be several who employ
illegal immigrants informally.

PROSTITUTION RISING, NO EVIDENCE OF TRAFFICKING


7. (U) Although prostitution is clearly a growing
problem in Francistown, no evidence has emerged that this
involves trafficking in persons. Mr. Dintwa told Poloff
that his police stations had received no reports of
people forced or coerced into sex work. He believed that
the vast majority of prostitutes in Francistown were
Zimbabwean women struggling to survive. Periodically, he
said, these women returned to Zimbabwe to share some of
their earnings with their families. He complained that
Botswana law made it difficult to convict someone for
prostitution, so the best the police could do is use laws
against loitering in a vain effort to clear the streets.


8. (U) Local government officials echoed Dintwa's
comments. In separate conversations, District
Commissioner Syliva Muzila and Deputy Mayor Rebecca
Nshakazhogwe confirmed that commercial sex work appeared
to be flourishing in Francistown. Neither had
encountered any evidence that the individuals involved
were victims of trafficking.


9. (U) Staff of the Matshelo Community Development
Association (MCDA),which works with communities at high
risk of contracting and spreading HIV/AIDS, also did not
believe trafficking to be a problem in Francistown. MCDA
has teams of peer educators in sixteen locations
primarily in eastern Botswana. Most of these volunteers
are former sex workers. Mrs. Motlhabani, Coordinator of
the NGO, told PolOff on June 28, that none of MCDA's
volunteers had reported any examples of trafficking.


10. (U) She explained to PolOff that while there were
"brothels" in Francistown, the proprietors generally were
landlords charging rent but not attempting to force
people into sex work. Motlhabani explained that often
women are not fulltime prostitutes. Many turn to sex
work only when they are desperate for cash. Once their
financial situation improves, they leave the streets only
to return if their luck runs out again.

COMMENT


11. (SBU) Many Batswana feel an historical sense of
indebtedness to Zimbabwe because of the numbers of
Batswana who studied or worked there in the early 1980s
when they saw Zimbabwe as a land of opportunity. This,
in addition to familial ties binding many Batswana to
Zimbabweans, the demand for cheap labor in Botswana, and
the GOB's desire to maintain cordial relations in the
region result in a patience with and willingness to incur
certain costs as a result of the crisis in Zimbabwe.
Although it is impossible to say when the Mugabe regime
will exhaust that patience, slowing economic growth is
likely to push more migrants into crime, thereby
hastening that time. Much will depend, however, on the
enigmatic next President's disposition toward Mugabe,
which Post will continue to investigate.


12. (U) The International Labor Organization is
administering a project called "Toward the Elimination of
the Worst Forms of Child Labor" (TECL),which will
include an assessment of commercial sexual exploitation
of children in Botswana. Poloff has met with Dr. Okello-
Wengi, the contractor who will conduct this research, to
share with him some contacts to facilitate a thorough
investigation. According to Dr. Okello-Wengi, an escort
service based in Tlokweng, a suburb of Gaborone, is
rumoured to be trafficking children across the border to
South Africa. Post will follow up on this issue and
continue to investigate all reports of trafficking and
monitor the process of the TIP-related TECL research
program.

HUGGINS