Migration Merry-Go-Round

Vincent Dzapasi
Stand No. 757 Dwarsloop
Bushbuckridge, 1280
+27797981277
dzapasiv@yahoo.com











Migration Merry-Go-Round
by Vincent Dzapasi


Mustaff and his friends were accosted by the Corps of the Port Captaincies when their overcrowded boat was about 15km into the Italian waters. They were immediately arrested and detained at a refugee camp in San Ferdinando. Their fingerprints and documents were hastily processed. By the second day Mustaff found himself in a military plane heading for Libya. 
The hostile reception at Triq al-Matar was akin to a horror movie. Torture, random beatings, rape and murder were a daily occurrence. These crimes were perpetrated by the Misrata militia, even under the watch of UNHCR officials. He was lucky to be sold to humane traffickers for US$2000.
After being resold several times and shuttled around many illegal detention centres, Mustaff eventually found work at a farm outside Tripoli. He worked for six months and saved enough money to enable him to buy a one-way ticket to Johannesburg.
Mustaff quickly connected with other community members from Ethiopia and Somalia in Johannesburg. He was offered work as a shop assitant in a heavily barricaded spaza shop selling groceries. Three weeks later service delivery protests erupted and his spaza shop was ransacked by a marauding mob of xenophobic youths.
Mustaff fled to the nearest police station for sanctuary. The policewoman who was taking statements from him called Home Affairs officials because he didn’t have a work permit. He was taken to Lindela Detention Centre so that he will be deported back to Libya, or Ethiopia if was lucky.