Next Wednesday is World Refugee Day. But unlike Youth Day or Women’s Day, this annual commemoration honours a group we would rather did not exist. For some, refugees are a painful reminder of the crises, conflicts and oppression that characterise far too much of our continent. For others, asylum seekers and refugees are an awkward obligation; a drain on scarce state resources; or a threat to South African values, wealth and security.
While foreigners do challenge our transforming society, their presence is nevertheless a testament to South Africa’s prosperity, stability and commitment to the rights and dignity of all people. And, with their desire for protection, refugees bring skills and resources that generate far more South African jobs than they “take”. Some might come with criminal intent, but there is no evidence that refugees — or other foreigners for that matter — are naturally felons; they are far more likely to be victims of crime, exploitation and abuse.
On June 19 the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa will release its annual report, documenting just how well we have done to protect those who arrive fleeing violence, conflict and persecution. For those concerned with the rights of the poor and dispossessed, the news is not good. While applauding South Africa’s public commitments to upholding the rights of asylum seekers and refugees, the report finds these principles are undermined by prevailing xenophobia, administrative incapacity and weak political will.
Refugees and asylum seekers are consistently denied access to emergency and primary healthcare, education and a variety of other services to which they are entitled. In some cases state agents actively violate rights. The indiscriminate and illegal deportation of unaccompanied minors in Limpopo is just one example of this. While we condemn Europe and the United States for their inhumane treatment of African migrants, it seems we do little better at home.
Far more disturbing than the administrative incompetence, xenophobia and violence, is the level of complacency. Few seem concerned that asylum seekers wait months just to get into a refugee reception office and years to have their asylum applications considered. Do we hear of the unions protesting against the treatment of refugees or their arbitrary exclusion from the private security sector? It seems we are ready to accept our own government regularly detaining refugees and asylum seekers and occasionally shipping them back to face persecution in Zimbabwe and elsewhere. “Sure,” you say, “they may suffer, but it means fewer of them on our streets.”
And what about the mobs that ransack shops and attack foreigners in Masiphumelele, Motherwell and Schweizer-Reneke, while the police stand by or lend a helping hand? Yes, councillors and government officials publicly condemn the violence, but where can they show progress in proactively addressing the source of conflicts or providing mechanisms for their resolution? And where is the Human Rights Commission? For a body struggling to legitimise its own existence, the commission has been remarkably reticent about years of administrative irregularities, deportations and violence that undermine the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and other foreigners living in South African.
There is no doubt about it: refugees are an unfortunate lot. By protecting the rights already promised them by South African and international national law, most refugees can work and contribute to South Africa, generating business and jobs we need desperately. But, protecting these rights, means moving beyond blanket condemnations, baseless accusations and fear. Instead, we must address refugees as we should other disadvantaged groups, such as the disabled or the unemployed: not by locking our doors, but by understanding their needs and rights; by working to ensure mechanisms are there to promote their interests; and by protesting loudly about abuses against them. Only when we are prepared to do this, can we fulfil the Freedom Charter’s promise that all national groups shall be protected by law.
Loren Landau is executive committee chair of the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa and director of Wits University’s Forced Migration Studies Programme