Mom turns to court to halt 3-year-old's deportation

File picture: Independent Media

File picture: Independent Media

Published Feb 24, 2017

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Pretoria – The mother of a three-year-old who hails from Ghana, rushed to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to obtain an urgent order that she not be deported back to her country of origin, as her life would be in danger.

Dora Odaatu told the court she was arrested at Marabastad at the end of last month when she wanted to renew her asylum seeker permit.

She was taken to the Central police station in Pretoria and held for several days before being transported to the Lindela Repatriation Camp in Krugersdorp, where she is still being detained.

Odaatu, who was separated from her child when she was arrested, said if the court didn't urgently intervene, she could be deported back to Ghana at any given moment.

There, she said, she faced certain death and her child would be left destitute.

Odaatu, 33, told the court that she was a foreigner in South Africa and fled to this country in 2008.

She was born in Ghana and belonged to the Jwira-Pepesa tribe, as did her parents.

She attended school there but had to drop out due to financial reasons.

She said she fled Ghana to escape, among other things, being forced to marry an older man against her will. He practised as a traditional priest and religious healer of her tribe, she said.

“The community’s ethno-religious belief is that when a virgin marries a traditional priest of such calibre, it would pacify the ancestors of our tribe."

"Since it is part of our belief and practice, the marriage would cleanse our tribe."

“I have witnessed my peers being brutally assaulted and harassed each time they defied the practice until they succumbed and gave in.”

Odaatu said she simply couldn't face marrying the priest and that this had placed her life in danger.

“It became known to me that the traditional priest whom I was forced to marry had intentions to kill me as I was going against the long- standing practice of our tribe.”

She said the majority of the people of her tribe supported this practice, and believed it would serve to cleanse them.

Due to the physical and psychological abuse she had witnessed and endured, as well as the threats of death because she refused to marry him, she had no option but to flee.

A friend assisted her to travel to Joburg, where she was issued with her first asylum seeker’s permit.

When she arrived in South Africa nine years ago, she could only speak Twi (her mother tongue) and did not understand English.

While she still could not speak English, she understood a few words.

With the help of an interpreter, Odaatu told her story to Home Affairs and her asylum seeker permit was renewed from time to time.

Meanwhile, she moved to Mpumalanga where she lived with her daughter. She came to Marabastad at the end of January to renew her refugee status, when she was arrested.

She was given a document containing the written reasons as to why her refugee status was rejected, but it was taken away from her before she could read it or before someone could explain to her what it contained.

Odaatu said it was her right to be heard by Home Affairs on her reasons to remain in the country.

The court, meanwhile. issued an order that she immediately be released pending appeal and review procedures relating to the refusal to extend her refugee status. The court also interdicted Home Affairs officials from arresting and detaining her in the meantime.

Pretoria News

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