Human Rights and the Transfer of Sentenced Offenders Within South Africa and How it Could Impact on the Transfer of Offenders from Other Countries to South Africa

Abstract

Hundreds of South Africans are imprisoned in different foreign countries. South African prisons host thousands of foreign nationals. In April 2013 the South African Minister of Correctional Services informed Parliament that South African prisons were hosting a total of 8,973 unsentenced and sentenced foreign national inmates from 90 countries or territories. Most of these inmates were from the following neighboring countries: Zimbabwe; Mozambique; Lesotho; Malawi; Tanzania; Swaziland and Congo. There was also a sizeable number of inmates from countries such as Nigeria, Bolivia, Somalia, Peru, Brazil, Uganda, Burundi, Pakistan and Cameroon. Although this article is not about the human rights of prisoners in South Africa generally, it is necessary that in order to situate the issue under discussion in a broader context, the author start by highlighting some of the rights of offenders in South African law. The words offenders, prisoner, sentenced offender and inmate are used interchangeably in this article. So are the words correctional center and prison.