Human rights issues concerning refugees, immigrants and exiles needed urgent discussion and action at all three levels of government, experts said on Thursday during a panel discussion at the University of the Witwatersrand.
The discussion dealt with the police raid on immigrants at the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg last week, as well as the country’s immigration policy.
The panel was made up of participants from Lawyers for Human Rights, the City of Johannesburg, the Zimbabwe Exiles’ Forum and the Human Rights Commission (HRC), among others.
The panel highlighted the lack of understanding that civil servants, police and South African citizens had of the humanitarian issues involved in dealing with immigrants, refugees and exiles.
Bishop Paul Verryn of the Central Methodist Church said police displayed xenophobia and a lack of understanding of the issues faced by immigrants when they raided his church on January 31.
David Cote, a lawyer for human rights, said the failure of the raid was due to the lack of tools available to police to access documents or records and a lack of understanding in dealing with foreign nationals.
”International law is based on humanitarianism and gives protection to those who do not get protection from their country or are exiled by their country,” said Cote.
Cote cited the Musina detention centre where illegal immigrants — after being hunted down by the army and border police — were detained without trial.
South African law allowed for irregular entry for asylum-seekers. But these people lived in fear of harassment and of their documentation not being recognised by police, Cote said.
Thuli Mlangeni, a Johannesburg city councillor, said the City of Johannesburg did not condone or overlook the issues raised by the raid.
She said there had been a number of reports on xenophobic incidents.
Workshops were being set up to teach frontline officers and civil servants about foreigners’ rights and how to deal with foreign nationals, specifically persons seeking asylum and refuge under section 22 and section 24 of the Refugee Act of 1998.
”Most policies involving foreigners are created at a national level but implemented at a local level. This necessitates communication throughout all three tiers of government,” she said.
Mlangeni said the Department of Home Affairs needed to provide clarity on where it would open its migrant reception offices so that provincial and local government could provide clear answers to foreigners who approached them seeking asylum or refuge.
The City of Johannesburg needed the partnership and expertise of all interested NGOs in addressing the humanitarian issues of immigration, refuge and exile of foreign nationals in South Africa, she said.
Mlangeni said a transitional shelter accommodating women and children would be set up but the city needed the help of NGOs in order to create possible exit strategies for the people.
Darshan Vigneswaran, organiser of the discussion, said if an illegal immigrant approached a police officer and sought asylum, the law stipulated that the officer must facilitate his or her application for asylum or refuge.
Joyce Tlou, coordinator of the national consortium for refugee affairs at the HRC, said a lack of documentation was an administrative offence and not a criminal one.
She said the manner in which foreigners were being handled harked back to apartheid laws, with police having a mentality of control.
”The HRC has a constitutional mandate to protect the rights of all people within the borders of South Africa. There is no difference in policing foreign nationals,” Tlou said.
Cote said many would rather die on the streets than go to a hospital for fear of being arrested because they do not have the proper papers.
Many are turned away after being told that health services did not take care of them because they were not South African citizens. — Sapa