SA a popular refugee destination

2018-06-22 -

This is one of the questions the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Fatima Chohan, was keen to address as attention focused on refugees with this week’s World Refugee Day. During a comprehensive briefing to editors, as well as an after-hours visit to the Desmond Tutu centre, she explained the difference between asylum seekers who have fled their country and want protection as refugees, and ordinary migrants seeking a better life in South Africa. Refugees, like those anywhere else in the world, have a “well-founded fear of persecution in their country”, and seek the safety and protection living elsewhere can provide. This fear can be for any number of reasons - including nationality, religion, sexual orientation and, of course, war. The countries internationally that have produced the largest numbers of refugees are Syria - with 6.6million Syrians internally displaced and 5.6million outside the country - followed by Afghanistan and South Sudan, countries that have experienced extended periods of war. In Africa the country that has produced the largest number of refugees is the DRC with more than 4million Congolese internally displaced, and about 740000 seeking refuge across Africa. Last year, 4849 Congolese applied to live in South Africa, representing the largest group of asylum seekers to this country. Many of the other clients, as Home Affairs calls those visiting its centres daily, come from non-refugee producing countries with the largest number coming from Zimbabwe. These migrants have, over many years, been driven by economic imperative, and therefore the same conditions do not apply as to asylum seekers. Aside from locality, one of the reasons South Africa is attractive to migrants is its liberal policies: for example it has no reservations - such as those imposed by neighbours in the region - in terms of freedom of movement, and it makes available basic services such as health and education to migrants. Some of those who arrive in the country do so officially on a visa, while others slip in illegally and hope not to be caught. An asylum seeker is issued with a permit and is expected to travel to a centre such as Desmond Tutu in Pretoria to continue with the process. However, many abandon this then or later and, according to Chohan, there are currently 946314 abandoned applications on the Home Affairs system. Some 70% of the first time applications are received at the Pretoria centre in Marabastad. It is here where they book an appointment day on a self-service machine and then follow the process of application, interview and adjudication, with a review and appeal available if the application fails. As part of a clamp-down on corruption, Chohan has instructed Home Affairs to deal with new applications ahead of those which had been languishing in the system for years, and the next step is to close abandoned applications

She also has limited services at refugee centres in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, preferring to centralise new applications at points of entry and in Pretoria where the system is now biometric, and is monitored closely to try to prevent corruption. She walked the media through the process - to show the improved queuing and security features, but perhaps the most important message is that the process of applying for refugee status is free. This comes as the department tries to eliminate touts and others offering to help newcomers at a fee. It is not possible, she stresses, to help someone else get the all-important paperwork - applicants must do so themselves. The tour also addressed issues raised in the Pretoria News article of June 12 - titled “Herded like Cattle” - which followed a visit to the centre in Marabastad by the DA and claims that it was dangerous and corrupt, and that applicants were treated inhumanely. It would appear the department has improved security and queuing and provides what safety and help it can to applicants once they are inside the turnstiles, but not all who converge outside qualify to stay in South Africa, either as refugees or migrants, and those desperate for documentation may be susceptible to unscrupulous people wanting bribes to “get in the back door”. In terms of numbers, South Africa has accommodated more than 1million asylum seekers over a 10 year period. Home Affairs granted refugee status to 126000 applicants in the past decade, and approved 2267 applications last year, while denying 18894 on the basis that they were unfounded. In SA the largest number of migrants are from Zimbabwe, the DRC, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Somalia, Pakistan and Nigeria. With the exception of the DRC it is clear that most of those are economic migrants rather than genuine refugees seeking asylum.