Meeting with United Nations Rapporteur on Human Rights, Mr Jorge Bustamante, to discuss the migratory flows, border control and incidents of xenophobia in South Africa

Meeting report

Briefing by Representatives from the UN
The delegation from the UN consisted of Mr Jorge Bustamante, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, and Mr Thierry Del Prado, Lawyer in the Human Rights Office at the UN. Mr Jorge Bustamante said that he was interested in finding out what government and civil society was doing for the protection of the human rights of migrants, especially the human rights of women and children. He was focussing on the distance of the gap between the current legislation of South Africa and the actual implementation of such legislation in terms of actions and omissions. This was something that UN officials and government needed to discuss.

Mr Thierry Del Prado explained the role of the UN Special Rapporteur. He was appointed by the Human Rights Council and carried out three main roles or responsibilities. Firstly, he reported yearly to the Human Rights Council and the general assembly of the UN, secondly he received individual communication or complaints from persons who had their human rights violated and transmitted this information to the appropriate states, and lastly he carried out visits to countries where there was a threat of human rights violation and xenophobia.

Mr Del Prado noted that they had been in South Africa since the 24 January and had visited areas such as Johannesburg, Pretoria, Musina and the De Doorns area in Worcester in Cape Town where threats of xenophobic attacks had surfaced. The final report on the visit to South Africa would be finalised and presented to the Human Rights Council in June 2011. He requested that what the UN wanted from members was an overview of what was being done with regards to human rights, xenophobia, and the rights of migrant workers. He asked what was being tabled in Parliament that could affect the rights of migrant workers and their families.

Discussion
The Chairperson highlighted that the country viewed this matter seriously and had introduced legislation to address these concerns. The Refugees Amendment Bill was finalised the previous year and was a product of wide consultation. The Committee was currently processing the Immigration Amendment Bill and hoped to complete its work in the near future.

The Chairperson pointed out that the issue of documentation (of migrants and refugees) was still under review but after the enactment of the Refugee Amendment Bill, government would be able to issue documentation more rapidly. The problem with the documents was that they were maroon in colour, and that was a problem for refugees because everyone could see that they were refugees and they did not have permanent status. Therefore, the Committee decided that all Identity Documents (ID’s) should be green bar-coded ID’s. The Department of Home Affairs would continue with the current system of documenting Zimbabweans and was working with the Zimbabwean Embassy to regularise the stay of their nationals. This process of registration was scheduled to be completed in December 2010, but had been extended to the end of March 2011. The Department would also implement the registration of other foreigners from other countries such as Mozambique and Angola, including all other countries, and this process would have started in April of this year.

Mr M Mnqasela (DA) thanked the UN and was grateful for the interaction government had with them. In terms of legislation, he felt that all that could have been done had been done. The reality was that legislation needed to be fast-tracked. The reality was that different foreigners had different experiences of South Africa in relation to the purpose of their visit or stay in the country. One of the problems concerned the differentiation between migrant workers coming to South Africa and valid political asylum seekers who fled their country due to social upheaval. Another problem came to the fore when the Refugee Status Determining Officers at the Department of Home Affairs did not accurately assign some people refugee status, because of inexperience on their part. This resulted in many foreigners’ refugee statuses being denied for some reason. The Committee had realised this and therefore the two new Bills would deal with that aspect. He said that the xenophobic violence which escalated in 2008 was a great shame to the image of the country but it was something that was steadily being addressed by the Department of Home Affairs.

The Chairperson agreed that government policy was to integrate people from other countries into society and townships and not to keep them in camp structures.

Ms S Rwexana (COPE) wanted to highlight the issue of foreign children living in South Africa. She noted that children were being treated as South Africans and were attending schools and university. She highlighted that the issue of xenophobic violence in the area of De Doorns was because of seasonal workers feeling threatened that foreign workers were taking their employment. That, however, was sorted out by the Minister of Labour as he intervened and stabilised the situation. She said another problem in Cape Town with the issuing of ID documents was the location of the previous home affairs office dealing with registration. This office had now been moved and was more centralised- therefore easier to access.

Mr A Gaum (ANC) said that globally, South Africa as a state had dealt with this issue of refugees in a commendable manner. There was still a lot of public education and awareness to be done to make South Africans aware of the contribution of migrants to the economic standing of the country.

Ms Z Balindlela (COPE) asked if the UN could send the Committee some information regarding the implementation of legislation to assist South Africa in this process and also what their perception was regarding their visit to this country. She also asked how other countries responded to threats of xenophobia and if their responses were sufficient to help their countries.

Mr Bustamante responded that according to protocol, he could not give comment at the moment, until the end of his visit, to avoid discrepancies in his versions of testament. However, with talks held thus far, he noted that there was a general lack of data with questions related to human rights of migrants and aspects of xenophobia. He agreed that South Africa was still a very young country in experience of international migration. However, he highlighted that South Africa would continue to receive labour migrants because the country needed their skills and pointed to the shortage of doctors and engineers in the country.

Dr C Mulder (FF+) wanted to know if there was any specific reason for the UN visit to South Africa. He also commented that the conflict with regards to employment was not necessarily because of a shortage of scarce skills, because South Africa already had these highly skilled individuals in the country. It was as a result of unemployment in the labour market that competition between foreigners and locals had started.

Mr Bustamante highlighted that they were invited to come to South Africa by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and that was the reason why they were in South Africa. He explained that in the process of economic development, countries, such as South Africa, had forces of supply and demand taking place. If many migrant workers moved to a country, it was because there was usually a demand for their labour force. There was usually a resistance in many recipient countries to such integration as these countries did not accept the demand of migrants. The fact of this demand for labour force had caught the attention of the UN. They had paid specific attention to undocumented foreign immigrants coming to South Africa. This phenomenon should have been measured so that it could be documented.

Mr Mnqasela said that important issues had been raised and the the current issues lifted in the meeting were a necessity for the meeting to have taken place. He also said that one of the problems with the issuing of documentation was that the refugee status determining officers sometimes issued incorrect refugee statuses, resulting in foreigners being deported for no valid reason. Therefore the legislation had been amended to accommodate all refugees, not just those from Zimbabwe. Highly skilled, semi-skilled and graduates were needed by South Africa although we already have these individuals already.

The Chairperson thanked the delegation from the UN for their input and said the Department of Home Affairs could learn from their strategies and advice.

The meeting was adjourned.