South Africa plans to withdraw from UN conventions to restrict immigration and send refugees back to countries not considered dangerous
South Africa plans to withdraw from the UN conventions so that the government can restrict immigration and send refugees back to countries considered safe.
Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has announced plans to toughen the country’s asylum and immigration laws as part of his attempt to “overhaul” South Africa’s migration system.
One of the government’s most important proposals ‘White paper’is for the South African government to temporarily withdraw from the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.
This would allow South Africa to derogate from certain immigration restriction clauses and not grant migrants socio-economic rights set out in the 1951 Motsoaledi Convention said.
Under the proposals, South Africa would rejoin the UN conventions after restricting refugees’ rights to work, education and citizenship.
New laws would also allow South Africa to send refugees back to countries not considered dangerous.
Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has announced plans to toughen the country’s asylum and immigration laws as part of his attempt to “overhaul” South Africa’s migration system.
The government will also set up a border guard agency to “reduce the risk of foreigners illegally entering the country in the first place,” Motsoaledi said, pointing out that immigration officials deport 20,000 illegal migrants every year at “high cost.”
Motsoaledi said the ruling African National Congress (ANC) made a “serious error” when it signed international agreements without seeking exemptions from certain clauses. Other countries had decided against giving refugees the same rights as citizens.
The government minister said current liberal laws, which led to the ANC opening South Africa’s borders to migrants and asylum seekers after the end of apartheid rule in 1994, were now outdated and needed a “radical overhaul”.
Motsoaledi is now pushing for people seeking asylum in South Africa to stay in the first safe country they enter – a proposal that will particularly affect people from other African countries.
In fact, the country’s statistics agency said last month that there were more than 2.4 million migrants in South Africa last year, with the highest percentage coming from neighboring Zimbabwe at 45.5 percent, followed by Mozambique and Lesotho.
“Migration between countries is largely driven by the search for economic opportunities, political instability and, increasingly, environmental threats,” Statistics South Africa said.
Motsoaledi said the country’s outdated immigration laws needed a major overhaul because they targeted vulnerable groups.
He said in the white paper: “Political and legislative disagreements within the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) have created fertile ground for violent clashes between foreign nationals and citizens, including the emergence of warring groups on both sides.” [with] or against the current migration system.’
The proposals come as South Africa is due to hold its national elections next year, with illegal immigration high and the official unemployment rate at 33 percent.
Analysts say the official unemployment figure doesn’t even take into account those who have given up looking for work and gone off the grid. A more accurate estimate would be that almost 42 percent of South Africa’s working-age population is unemployed.
A United Nations report on unemployment in South Africa, presented to Deputy President Paul Mashatile last month, described the situation as a “ticking time bomb”.
“We have to ask ourselves why this was allowed to happen,” Frye said.
The UN pointed in particular to a week in 2021 in which riots and looting killed more than 350 people in South Africa, the worst violence since the final days of apartheid.
Experts say migrants and asylum seekers control the local economy and take jobs away from locals, leading to hostility towards foreigners.
Casual workers display posters advertising their skills at an intersection in Kempton Park near Johannesburg, South Africa, in October 2020
Paddy Harper, a journalist with South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper, told the BBC: “Immigrants – particularly Somalis and Bangladeshis – appear to control the township economy and are accused of taking jobs away from locals.” There have been attacks on migrants and “The emergence of anti-migrant groups such as Operation Dudula.”
Harper said Motsoaledi had that growing anger – and the upcoming election – in mind when he unveiled his anti-immigration proposals.
“Some of the opposition parties are likely to make migration a key election issue.” “The ANC fears losing support and wants to give the impression that it is doing something about it,” he said.
Critics of the government say it is only using immigration to distract from its own mistakes. They also say anti-immigrant rhetoric could further inflame hostilities.
Stephen Friedman, a political analyst, said migrants in South Africa were “scapegoats.”
He told South Africa’s Financial Mail: “It’s not true that the law simply welcomes everyone.”
“The government simply does not recognize that the vast majority of foreigners in South Africa have skills, work hard and contribute to society.”
Meanwhile, the British government has indicated it may abandon the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to allow it to implement its plan to send migrants on deportation flights to Rwanda.
This came after the UK Supreme Court unanimously concluded that the plan to immediately deport arrivals would break the law. It is a major blow to the government, which has already paid out £140 million to Rwanda.