Senior immigration officer slammed by Cape judges after Ethiopian asylum seeker attempts suicide

• An Ethiopian asylum seeker, who does not speak English, claims he was duped by a senior immigration official into paying an admission of guilt fine when he thought he was paying for bail.
• Two Western Cape High Court judges have condemned the official's "deplorable" behaviour, set aside the fine, and ordered the immigration official be taken off the case.
• Tsegaye Esyas claims Annelise van Dyk treated him like an animal which led to him attempt suicide while in police cells.

A senior immigration official has come under fire for her "deplorable" conduct in handling the case of an Ethiopian citizen who attempted to take his own life after being duped into confessing he was in South Africa illegally, according to GroundUp.

Western Cape High Court judges James Lekhuleni and Patricia Goliath set aside the admission of guilt fine paid by Tsegaye Esyas and ordered he be refunded the R1 000.

They referred the case back to the Paarl Magistrate's Court to be heard by another magistrate "for him to have a fair hearing" with a competent interpreter, and ordered that immigration officer, Annelise van Dyk, be taken off the case.

"This kind of behaviour from a high-ranking government official is repugnant and objectionable to the expected tenets and attributes of a person in her position and to the Batho Pele principles," the judges said.

Esyas launched the urgent application to set aside the admission of guilt fine he paid on 10 April this year.

The papers were served on the magistrate who first heard his case and Van Dyk, but they did not oppose the application, hence Esyas' version of events was unchallenged.

Read the judgment here. 

Lekhuleni, who penned the judgment, said Esyas was an Ethiopian citizen who did not speak English.

He arrived in South Africa earlier this year, fleeing his birth country because of political unrest.

Esyas came to seek asylum and to be with his two brothers and other family members, who were all duly documented.

In his affidavit, he explained his attempts to begin the process of obtaining his own documentation.

Esyas said the first time he was sent away because the system was offline.

He went back a few days later but was told only the first 24 asylum seekers were dealt with every day.

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The following day Esyas slept on the pavement outside the offices to be part of the first 24. However, they were all turned away due to load shedding.

In the interim, he obtained work as a "till operator" at a shop.

Before Esyas could make it back to the immigration offices for the fourth time, he and his employer were arrested.

He appeared in court, but the case was postponed for about a week for an interpreter. When he appeared in court again on 10 April, there was still no interpreter.

Esyas said he could not understand anything that was happening, but the case seemed to be proceeding.

'Blatantly misled'

He added Van Dyk went outside the courtroom and approached his family, asking if they had money to pay bail, which his brother confirmed.

She then instructed his brother to remain outside the courtroom.

Later, his brother accompanied a police officer to the cash hall and paid R1 000, believing it was for bail.

However, when he returned to the courtroom with the receipt, he was told Van Dyk had taken Esyas away and he would remain in custody.

The police officer said the money was not for bail, but was an admission of guilt fine, and Van Dyk could now keep him in custody, pending deportation.

The family believed they had been "blatantly misled" by her.

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Esyas said Van Dyk fetched him from police cells and took him to her office where she was "extremely hostile and racist towards him", treating him like an animal and trying to force him to sign documents which he did not understand.

"There was nobody to hear his plight. He attempted to hang himself. The police officials, however, caught him trying to take his own life and he was then moved to an isolated cell and placed on suicide watch," he added.

However, Van Dyk continued to insist he sign the documents.

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"The applicant's attorney of record has also spoken to police officials at Paarl police station, who confirmed the conduct of Ms van Dyk was a normal occurrence.

"He was informed she treats people in this manner to threaten and demean them," Lekhuleni said.

He added it was difficult to fathom on what basis the magistrate had been satisfied Esyas was admitting guilt, when he could not understand the proceedings or communicate with the court, saying this was "highly irregular".

Regarding Van Dyk, he added the allegations against her were "so egregious", it was surprising they had not been challenged at all.

"Her conduct, as explained by the applicant, is deplorable and must be condemned.

"It has been alleged that she treated the applicant with disdain and inhumanely, so much so that it led to his attempted suicide.