Chronicles of an ungrateful foreigner, Part II

Asylum seekers line up body-to-body at the entrance of the Desmond Tutu Refugee Reception Centre in Pretoria. (Picture courtesy: GroundUp)

On three occasions, 2014, 2016 and 2017, I decided to record my experiences on the dates of renewal of my asylum seeker permit in Pretoria. I saved those short notes in my emails.

I used my phone to record my experiences. Phones are not allowed at the home affairs immigration services centres, so I had to be secretive about it.

I did the recordings mainly so that I could, after some time, look back and see if things had changed – for better or worse – but also to reflect on how I was feeling at each particular time.

These records were made as and when they happened. I have shown the times on which I recorded each moment, and, in some instances, I record my inner feelings and thoughts about the events as they happened.

Nothing has been polished from these memories, except minor spelling corrections. I retrieved, and publish, them as they were recorded. Expect raw emotions.

The recordings begin below.

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Home Affairs, recorded 29 July 2014

Arrived around 8 am

It’s now 11:13 and many of us are still outside, standing.

That means we've been on out feet for over 2 hours now.

Even women carrying small babies have to stand and wait

Same applies to pregnant women

I feel sleep whilst standing

My feet are killing me.

This is cruel treatment

Nobody cares about us

No one is telling us anything

Zero!

When we move, we move just about two metres and stop for a whole hour.

12:00 and we're still standing on the line

Now it's 12:35. They allowed all the women in, as usual.

Now the men follow

I had a very brief nap just a few minutes ago

I sat on an old air-conditioner and fell asleep

1500. Done now.

Home Affairs, recorded 25 July 2016

0400 - Alarm rang. Foolishly pressed snooze button

0435 - Woke up

0655 - Arrived at Noord taxi rank

0713 - Still at Noord. Extremely cold today. Light drizzle falling. Hoping Pretoria won't have rain. Queue so slow here

0749 - Finally getting into taxi, leaving for Pretoria

0824 - Still on the road!

0914 - Arrive in Marabastad. Put asylum paper in box. Already there's lots of people

Processes don't get explained to people here.

0944 - Cold here!

1004 - My heart sinks as I see this lady who's carrying her little child. She's been standing here in the cold and dusty wind, with no seats! Carrying her child, and she seems to be all alone, with no one to help her. She seems to be Muslim, unless the 'hood' on her head, showing her face, is just for the cold. But she's wearing jeans, and I'm not sure if Muslim women are allowed to.

Home Affairs clearly doesn't care about the children and their rights

1115 - Calling of names. Mainly seems to be Congo

1254 - Names get called. But few of them. Still a large group waiting in the dusty and filthy wind. The woman and her child are still here, still standing. There are no seats! There are other women with their children as well. Some of the women have decided to seat on the dust.

1301 - I notice there's a young school girl. Primary school. Wearing school uniform - green blazer, grey trousers, white shirt, green and red tie.

1323 - The little child's mother finally gets her asylum paper. Leaves. Yes, that makes me feel better. I'd have felt very sad if I had left earlier than her.

But some mothers still here. Pregnant women too. People with disabilities as well. Imagine them standing since very early in the morning. Bear in mind the time on which they had to wake up!

1341 - Finally I receive mine. Renewable 23 January 2017

But I still leave a big, frustrated crowd

Home Affairs 23 January 2017

8am: Arrived at Marabastad. This time we go inside. We wait inside premises. Many people standing outside already. Not sure how the lines go because there's no one to direct. But what happens if it rains?

8:21am: There are different lines here. Nobody explains to us which is which! The Marabastad HA office this time is enclosed by a high wall. I guess it was a constant embarrassment for the minister to have people waiting outside the whole day. Now they're keeping the "dirty laundry" inside. This way no one gets curious about the problems at HA (for asylum applicants).

8:42: We're busy changing lines, not knowing where to go. And nobody fucking explains shit to us!!!

8:50: Sitting on the concrete benches.

I notice that no special arrangements have been made for those with small babies and for school children. They may be here the whole day.

9:07: I see they have some "Automated Asylum Seeker Booking Terminal" machines. I don't know whether they're a new thing or they've always been used. I'm not sure if it will help speed up the renewing process, but it seems to do same time printouts for some people.

9:16: My paper has gone through the terminal. They printed out a slip which says, "Refer to Meeter Greeter." It also has "Report Meeter Greeter, Reason: Status: Unfounded."

9:45: Standing in a very, very, long queue! And I need the toilet but it's a bit far from where I am. Interesting that pregnant women haven't been specially catered for. I'd have thought the government cares about the rights of pregnant women. Anyway...

10:03: Now we're boiling in the sun! The line isn't moving an inch! I wonder how things could turn out if it just rained. It would be chaos!

10:32: Inside now: "Extension Permit Area." It somehow happened that there was chaos in the front (in the line outside) and one of the officials cut the line and allowed us who were far behind to go through, telling the others to sort themselves out and make a straight line.

11:03: But even inside it's chaos. No one knows how the queue moves. And some (many) of the officials are horribly rude to us!

11:20: Done. Until 24/07/2017

NB: For the latest update on my experiences at the South African immigration services, see Chronicles of an ungrateful foreigner: Would Archbishop Desmond Tutu be proud?