Cape Argus reports on a crackdown on the exploitation of undocumented workers likened to “slaves” in the Cape Town hospitality industry.

The Department of Employment and Labour (DEL), together with Home Affairs and stakeholders, continued conducting blitz inspections along the Atlantic Seaboard strip this month, which has so far resulted in the arrest of at least 13 people – 10 of those working in the country without proper documentation, and three of those employers. In a statement, the DEL said they carried out raids and inspections in Camps Bay, where they found a substantial amount of illegal immigrants working at restaurants, with the employers also held to account. “One of the employers was arrested on Friday, January 10, during a multi-departmental raid to enforce multi-disciplinary compliance in the restaurants,” the department said. The raid was conducted at Camps Bay, an affluent suburb of Cape Town. Rosemary Anderson of the Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa) said they were working alongside the DEL to make sure businesses were compliant. “It’s a critical issue, and as a result of one of these meetings, the Department of Employment and Labour and Fedhasa are developing an initiative, which will be launched the first quarter of this year, to provide restaurant owners and hospitality businesses with practical solutions and clear guidelines to help reverse the trend of non-compliance,” Anderson said. James Chapman of the Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town called for rights of the illegal immigrants to be protected, saying: “It is also important for officials to assess whether individuals identified in an operation are asylum seekers or refugees as asylum seekers and refugees have the right to work and reside in the country and are protected against detention and deportation.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Genevieve Serra at Cape Argus

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page