Refugees protesting

Chipo Ngwira, 31, left Harare three weeks ago to look for a job in Gaborone, Botswana. She has not tasted a decent meal for 14 days as Batswanas constantly remind her that they have no jobs for foreigners, commonly known in the diamond-rich nation as 'makwerekwere'.

The 100 Pula she had raised over six months in Zimbabwe's economically crippled capital, Harare, has been exhausted. The only thing now is for her to join other Zimbabwean women at Gaborone West's Mogoditshane suburb where prostitution is the order of the day.

Finding a job in Gaborone's White City area, largely frequented by Zimbabweans looking for formal employment such as gardening and housekeeping is just a pipe dream.

To Chipo, the idea of leaving her two starving children with their grandmother was the most painful decision she has ever made in her life.

"I just dumped them at my grandmother's place in Highfield density suburb in Harare and told the granny that I am leaving for a better life either in Botswana or South Africa," says the distraught single parent.

Tiny hands, none of them chubby, clapped and each child bobbed a polite curtsy as pink and white marshmallows, Liquorice All-Sorts and crunchy biscuits appeared in front of their astonished eyes. A few of the smallest hesitated briefly: making choices is something refugee and asylum seeker children from Zimbabwe are no longer accustomed to.

Soon, however, their reticence was forgotten and they were just like any other youngsters at a Christmas party, clutching brightly coloured balloons tied with festive string, experimenting with new toys and dancing around the room in excitement.

One little boy was entranced by a cuddly lion which roared when its tummy was squeezed and had eyes that lit up like miniature headlights. The boy rushed back and forth across the room, demonstrating his new find to family members and friends.

The deaths of two more Zimbabwean asylum-seekers in South Africa's notorious Lindela Detention Centre at Krugersdorp on the outskirts of Johannesburg last month has sparked outrage from human rights organisations and calls for an official enquiry into the deaths.

Alice Chumba, who was only 18 years old and pregnant, died of complications on July 4, just five days after being admitted. Mcabangeli Mlambo, who was 22, died the following day after vomiting blood. According to Papele Shabane of Bosasa, the private company contracted to manage the centre by the Department of Home Affairs, Mlambo visited the clinic twice and was later taken to the sick bay. When detainees become ill at Lindela they are sent to Leratong hospital for treatment but Shabane said Mlambo died before he could be admitted.