Tag Archive for: Migrants

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Child Migrants Flock to World Cup Host (South Africa)

The World Cup has football fans in its grip, but away from the main spectacle in South Africa, children, some alone, are fleeing Zimbabwe and flooding in to the country. UK charities are among those working with them.
Leeroy Sibanda is 16. The eldest child in his family, he has left his brother, sisters and mother in Zimbabwe to cross illegally in to South Africa to seek work.
According to Save the Children, he came from Harare but lacked the proper immigration documents and was refused entry at the official border point between the two countries.
Instead, he swam the Limpopo river crossing.
He survived the crocodiles, but was greeted on the other side by the goma-goma – robbers who occupy the areas of bush land along the border and prey on refugees who try to cross.
They stole all the money he had – R150 (£13) – and beat him up.

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