There are about three million immigrants in Southern Africa and more than half of them come from within the sub-region, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Many of these are children who cross borders unaccompanied by parents or caregivers looking for better economic opportunities, their journeys are fraught with danger and their lives, once they reach their destinations, are often perilous.
But while it is unclear how many children constitute these migrant statistics, it is well known that their numbers are rising, and governments’ plans of action in the region are now in the spotlight.
For the first time, in July 2015, the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa’s (MIDSA) ministerial conference for Home Affairs Ministers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) focused specifically on child migrants and the harrowing treatment they face at the hands of state agencies in the countries they flee to.
Established in 2000, MIDSA’s overall objective is to facilitate dialogue among SADC countries and contribute to improved regional migration management.
“This is the first time that the issue of children has been the particular focus of Midsa discussions,” said Yitna Getachew from the International Organisation for Migration’s (IOM) Southern Africa Regional Office. The IOM is the secretariat for Midsa conferences.
The conference, titled Addressing Mixed and Irregular Migration in the SADC Region: Protection of the Unaccompanied Migrant Child, placed particular attention on the need to improve protection for unaccompanied migrant children, he said, which was identified as a priority area by senior officials meeting in December 2014.
“Although children did feature in migration related dialogue in the region in the past, the current focus results from the increasing number of child migrants in the region over the past few years, including their presence in detention facilities for immigration offences,” he said.
A 2013 report by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) called Targeting Intervention for Unaccompanied Migrant Children in Strategic Areas of Limpopo Province: Mapping Child Protection and HIV-related Risk, surveyed 776 migrant children living in five Limpopo municipalities.
“Only 5.2% of them were residing in formal shelters, whereas 14.3% were living on the streets and the rest of them living rough, in informal shelters or shacks,” the report stated.
The interviews further revealed that the 80.5% of children living in formal shelters go to school; only 8.1% of those living in informal settings do.
“Moreover, 18.6% of boys and 27.5% of girls said they had been physically hurt, and many talked about how they were suffering because of xenophobia.
“Even though South African law prohibits the detention of children for immigration reasons, 12.6% indicated that they had been arrested by the police.”
MIDSA is a platform for migration to be discussed in an informal setting, said Getachew, and its recommendations are “non-binding and implemented on a purely voluntary basis that permits the free exchange of ideas and avoids the rigidity of formal structures.”
The setting for discussions might be informal, but MIDSA has served as a successful breeding ground for regional migration management policy development and in the past few years has conceived and facilitated the formal adoption of several important policies, including the SADC Labour Migration Action plan and the Declaration on TB in the Mining Sector in SADC.
The recent ministerial conference was no exception.
One of its outcomes was the endorsement of a draft regional action plan called The Southern Africa Strategic Plan of Action to Address Mixed and Irregular Migration. Its goal is to “assist member states to adopt and implement legislative, regulatory, structural as well as operational measures and enhance their co-operation in holistically addressing mixed and irregular migration in the SADC region”.
It will be implemented over a period of four years, from 2015 to 2018, require an estimated budget of $14 469 000 and will be guided by, among others, a human rights-based approach and best interests of the child.
The plan stipulates numerous targets for improved child protection. These include the need for countries to “review and modify national policies to ensure speedy best interest determinations after arrival, including family reunification; facilitate children’s access to documentation to make their migration and stay as safe as possible and review practices on safe return of unaccompanied, separated, and other vulnerable migrant children in the region and develop guidelines to provide for dignified return”.
The first of the above requires at least five countries to institute best interest determination processes between 2016 and 2017.
Determining the best interests of the child and protecting these interests is the “priority of member states” the plan says, and has made this one of its guiding principles.
The best interest determination process is a set of procedures and assessments that inform important decisions around a child’s future. It aims to acknowledge that each child’s situation and trajectory is unique, while rejecting a one-size-fits-all approach.
The second requires at least five countries to adopt guidelines on safe return between 2016 and 2018, and the last requires at least five countries to issue documentation to migrant children in need between 2015 and 2018.
South Africa’s Home Affairs Department draws its vision for protecting the rights of child migrants from the strong legal framework the country has promulgated.
The principal legislation dealing with this is the Children’s Act of 2005, which covers a broad spectrum of responsibilities, the majority of which fall within the purview of the social development department.
Home Affairs spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete said section 4 (1) “requires all organs of state in all spheres of government to implement the Act in an integrated, co-ordinated and uniform manner, whilst sub-section two calls upon these organs and spheres to take reasonable measures, to the maximum extent of their available resources, to realise the objects of the Act”.
South Africa is also a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Transnational Crime and Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.
“The Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2013 (Act No 7 of 2013) was promulgated to give effect to the provisions of the above Convention and Protocol,” said Tshwete, “and it contains similar provisions that bind the relevant organs of state to a co-ordinated implementation approach.”
As a first step in response to the commitments made at the July Midsa conference, the home affairs department has encouraged the current SADC chair to transmit the plan to the appropriate SADC structures, said Tshwete.
The department also wants the chair to “align it with existing SADC initiatives, including initiatives by the ministerial committee of the organ, with a view to having the plan formally adopted at a regional level”.
He said the department would continue to “collaborate with SADC member states individually and collectively under different regional and bilateral structures on areas such as common regional policy framework and national policy frameworks in managing migration”.