21st September 2013
The government has recently embarked on expelling
all illegal immigrants, currently living in its territory. The move
follows the expiry of President Kikwete’s 14-day ultimatum, which he
issued last month while on official tour of Kagera Region.
After the expiry of the ultimatum, security organs launched ‘operation typhoon’, which is codename for the crackdown against all illegal immigrants in Tanzania.
We aren’t against the government’s move to arrest and deport people staying, working or living in the country illegally. We fully understand that any responsible government protects its territory as well as its citizens and resources against illegal immigrants.
However, what we don’t understand is the brutality and lack of clarity about who is an illegal immigrant. On Wednesday, the Minister for East African Community, Samuel Sitta, faulted the crackdown against the so called illegal immigrants, saying it violates human rights and good governance.
Sitta is not the first prominent leader to fault the manner in which ‘operation typhoon’ has been conducted by those tasked to supervise it. For instance what measures do we use to identify illegal immigrants? Are these measures scientific or just personal emotions or personal vendetta? Are these measures a reflection of reality on the ground?
For instance, how do we say someone who was born in this country fifty years ago is an illegal immigrant? In humanity terms, how do you expel such a person who has spent half a century in your country? He or she may not have documents required to naturalize his or her citizenship, but the question is where the government was for all those years?
Julius Nyerere, Father of the nation once said in his speech titled, “All Men are Equal”, which he delivered at the then Chang’ombe Teachers’ College on August 21, 1972: “What does it mean, to say to a large group of people, “From today –or tomorrow, or next week –you citizens are no longer citizens”? It means that they are people in the world who have no state, nor country, no place where they have a right to live.
Physically, what do you do with such people? If you give them thirty days to get out –or any other period –what do you do when it is expired? Where are they supposed to go –to the moon? Suppose we in Tanzania were to decide to get rid of some of our citizens, what do we do? We herd them to the border with Kenya, and Kenya says, “No, they are not our citizens”. Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Zaïre, Burundi and Rwanda all say this –what do we do? Do we kill them?”
Nyerere further said: “That is what Hitler did in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. He said that all Germany’s troubles were caused by the Jews; and he killed all those who could not escape from the country.
He killed six million Jews –put them in gas chambers and use their bodies for fertilizer and their hair for stuffing. These were people, not chimpanzees.
Is this what you do? Sometimes we in Africa adopt the attitude that we have suffered so long it will be good for other people to suffer and see what it is like. But it is necessary to remember that we are talking about people.”
As Nyerere put it, we are dealing with human beings, not animals, and therefore we should act fairly.
We know that there are thousands of illegal immigrants in this country from Malawi, Somalia, Kenya, India, Pakistan, China, Rwanda, Congo and elsewhere.
The question is how do we treat those children who were born and raised in this country for fifty years? We mean those whose parents migrated to this country legally or illegally before or after independence.
That’s why we strongly urge those tasked to supervise this operation to act fairly and humanly, knowing that they are dealing with human beings not chimpanzees. Human beings whether illegal or not, but they deserve to be treated with dignity and fairness, in deciding their fate.
After the expiry of the ultimatum, security organs launched ‘operation typhoon’, which is codename for the crackdown against all illegal immigrants in Tanzania.
We aren’t against the government’s move to arrest and deport people staying, working or living in the country illegally. We fully understand that any responsible government protects its territory as well as its citizens and resources against illegal immigrants.
However, what we don’t understand is the brutality and lack of clarity about who is an illegal immigrant. On Wednesday, the Minister for East African Community, Samuel Sitta, faulted the crackdown against the so called illegal immigrants, saying it violates human rights and good governance.
Sitta is not the first prominent leader to fault the manner in which ‘operation typhoon’ has been conducted by those tasked to supervise it. For instance what measures do we use to identify illegal immigrants? Are these measures scientific or just personal emotions or personal vendetta? Are these measures a reflection of reality on the ground?
For instance, how do we say someone who was born in this country fifty years ago is an illegal immigrant? In humanity terms, how do you expel such a person who has spent half a century in your country? He or she may not have documents required to naturalize his or her citizenship, but the question is where the government was for all those years?
Julius Nyerere, Father of the nation once said in his speech titled, “All Men are Equal”, which he delivered at the then Chang’ombe Teachers’ College on August 21, 1972: “What does it mean, to say to a large group of people, “From today –or tomorrow, or next week –you citizens are no longer citizens”? It means that they are people in the world who have no state, nor country, no place where they have a right to live.
Physically, what do you do with such people? If you give them thirty days to get out –or any other period –what do you do when it is expired? Where are they supposed to go –to the moon? Suppose we in Tanzania were to decide to get rid of some of our citizens, what do we do? We herd them to the border with Kenya, and Kenya says, “No, they are not our citizens”. Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Zaïre, Burundi and Rwanda all say this –what do we do? Do we kill them?”
Nyerere further said: “That is what Hitler did in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. He said that all Germany’s troubles were caused by the Jews; and he killed all those who could not escape from the country.
He killed six million Jews –put them in gas chambers and use their bodies for fertilizer and their hair for stuffing. These were people, not chimpanzees.
Is this what you do? Sometimes we in Africa adopt the attitude that we have suffered so long it will be good for other people to suffer and see what it is like. But it is necessary to remember that we are talking about people.”
As Nyerere put it, we are dealing with human beings, not animals, and therefore we should act fairly.
We know that there are thousands of illegal immigrants in this country from Malawi, Somalia, Kenya, India, Pakistan, China, Rwanda, Congo and elsewhere.
The question is how do we treat those children who were born and raised in this country for fifty years? We mean those whose parents migrated to this country legally or illegally before or after independence.
That’s why we strongly urge those tasked to supervise this operation to act fairly and humanly, knowing that they are dealing with human beings not chimpanzees. Human beings whether illegal or not, but they deserve to be treated with dignity and fairness, in deciding their fate.
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
