South African Emigration

Horn migrants heading south "pushed backwards"

JOHANNESBURG, 2 August 2011 (IRIN) - Increasing numbers of Ethiopians and Somalis fleeing war, drought and poverty in their home countries face arrest, deportation and detention as they try to make their way to the south of the continent.

For most the goal is South Africa - the only country in the region where refugees and asylum seekers have freedom of movement and the right to work rather than being confined to camps. But as the number of migrants from the Horn of Africa seeking asylum in South Africa has reached unprecedented levels, border authorities have started refusing them entry.

“There’s a new unofficial policy since the beginning of May where Somali and Ethiopian nationals are being informed they’ll not be given asylum by the South African government,” said Abdul Hakim, chairperson of the Somali Community Board, a local organization representing the interests of Somalis.

Hakim said that before the crackdown, about 1,500 Somalis were entering South Africa every month. With official borders closed to them, many were now entering the country illegally and then making their way to refugee reception centres to apply for asylum.

Deputy Director-General of South Africa's Department of Home Affairs Jackie McKay denied there had been any change of policy but Kaajal Ramjathan-Koogh, who heads the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights, said her organization had also observed “a definite shift away from accepting large numbers of refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia”.

“From a Home Affairs point of view… they’ve been seeing very large numbers arriving in the last two months and they’re not willing to accept the entire continent’s refugee burden,” she told IRIN.

An issue brief by Roni Amit of the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of Witwatersrand published in June suggests that the Home Affairs Department has been denying entry to asylum-seekers based on the principle that they should have sought asylum in the first safe country they reached. Amit points out that no such principle exists in international or domestic law.

"By denying entry to asylum-seekers based on the mere fact of their transit through another country, South Africa is contravening its obligations under international law," Amit writes. "This practice increases the risk that individuals will be returned to the life-threatening situations from which they fled.

Treat foreigners with respect – Motlanthe | Immigration South Africa

Although it is not a positive topic to dwell on, we cannot ignore the fact that a trend of xenophobia exists in South Africa. For those of you who don’t know what xenophobia is, maybe you have already had some experience of it. Xenophobia is the hatred of foreigners by the citizens of a country. It is a problem in other parts of the world as well, but in South Africa it has led to public violence and murders.

It is in the context of this climate of tension that we as residents of South Africa, whether we are South African citizens or not, need to be aware of the problem of xenophobia. The South African government is definitely aware of the problem, as evidenced by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe’s comments on Saturday.

“These people, no matter how different they may be from us, belong to the family of humanity and are deserving of our respect and basic human rights. We are all born free, with equal dignity, the right to life, shelter, food and security. These are indivisible rights that are afforded to everyone, including foreign nationals and asylum seekers who, through no fault of their own, have had to flee to South Africa because of conflict, famine and deteriorating socio-economic conditions in their countries of birth,” Motlanthe said.

Motlanthe’s comments are interesting because there are many immigrants from other African countries in South Africa. He refers to the “conflict, famine and deteriorating socio-economic conditions in their countries of birth”, which means that as residents of South Africa we need to educate ourselves about such things so that we actually understand why these people immigrated here in the first place.

The South African government’s stance on immigration and asylum seekers is one of accommodation and support. There are dedicated Home Affairs centres for refugees, and the recent documentation process for immigrants from Zimbabwe also seems to indicate that the official position is to accept and welcome these people, provided that they try to enter the country in a legal manner. Here at ImmigrationSouthAfrica, we share this attitude of welcoming and acceptance, and we advise all immigrants to apply for documentation through the proper channels, regardless of your reason for arriving in South Africa.

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