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Deportee Takes Government To Court |
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The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, the Attorney General and the Chief Immigration Officer, have been dragged to court by Mr. Mthandazo Sibanda, a Zimbabwean suffering from Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR TB), who was declared Prohibited Immigrant (PI) recently.
The Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) has taken the case to court on his behalf. It opened at the Lobatse High Court on Monday.
Through an urgent application to court, Sibanda, who is appealing his deportation, seeks to be transferred from the Prisons Clinic to a more conducive medical facility where he can be isolated, thus reducing the risk of cross infection as he is currently sharing a room with another MDR TB patient.
He also wants to access the requisite MDR TB treatment, saying his health is fast deteriorating and he is at risk of contracting the deadly Extreme Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR TB). Sibanda argues that his situation also poses a threat to the prison and police officials because there are no proper infection control measures in place.
BONELA took up the case as “it is clearly a human rights violation, as Section 11 (3) of the Immigration Act states that a person who notes an appeal cannot be removed from Botswana until the matter has been fully determined by the Magistrate’s Court”.
The organization is also concerned that Mr. Sibanda’s health continues to deteriorate because of lack of access to proper food and medication.
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