Temporary Residents Permit on the Horizon

Almost a decade into the Zimbabwean crisis, South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs is introducing a permit that could regularize the status of thousands of undocumented migrants and put an end to mass deportations as a first step to a long-awaited new policy on a thorny issue.(from IRIN)

The permit will grant thousands of Zimbabweans the right to live and work in South Africa, and access healthcare and education for an initial period of at least six months. The mass deportation of undocumented migrants may be halted.

South Africa has never formally addressed the influx of tens of thousands Zimbabweans over its northern border, and standard immigration measures left many undocumented, so seeking asylum has often been the only way for them to regularize their status.

Zimbabwe’s economic collapse and political crisis is a decade old, but until 2004 many Zimbabweans were barred from applying for asylum. According to the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA), they form the bulk of applications, creating a backlog of almost 90,000 in 2007.

“Up to 80 percent of these applications are rejected on the basis that the applicants do not meet the requirements of the Refugee Act,” Home Affairs spokesperson Siobhan McCarthy told IRIN.

“As it currently stands, the Immigration Act does not accommodate economic migrants. Given the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, it was agreed that the government cannot continue to send Zimbabweans who do not qualify for refugee status, or any other permit, back home.”

The idea of such a permit as a solution to the large number of asylum seekers is not new. Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula first mentioned it in 2007.

There are widespread misperceptions in South Africa about foreigners’ contribution to crime and unemployment, and such a policy change could be a political hot potato in an election year.

“We’re a little bemused by the timing of it,” said Loren Landau, director of the Forced Migration Studies Programme, which has long advocated the permit. “In some ways seems like exactly the wrong time … [but] my guess is that the minister wants some kind of legacy around this issue, realizing that they haven’t dealt with it in the past.”

South Africa’s approach has been largely one of “arrest, detain, deport”, in which undocumented individuals were arrested by the police and detained in repatriation centres before being deported at state expense.

“We’re looking at reports of rape, killings, trafficking, abuse of women, but it continues. [The new permit is] a clear turning point in South Africa, which up until now has had a line that there is no problem in Zimbabwe.”

Zim refugees moved from pillar to post

The Methodist Church, in the city centre, has long been a popular destination for thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing their country's political and economic woes and more recently a devastating cholera crisis. (from IOL)

The sheer numbers of refugees spilling out of the church as government closed down a camp in the border town of Musina, has now led local politicians to home in on the church for contravening city bylaws.

Refugees 'might as well go home'

Cape Town - While the few refugees remaining at the Youngsfield safety site have now resorted to begging on the streets for money to buy food, the leader of the Blue Waters Camp, Emiliene Nikwakwira, says the refugees there have no choice but to go back home.

"We're sick and tired of living here," said Nikwakwira. "They promise to help, but nothing happens. We might as well go home."

Cape Town City spokesman Pieter Cronje said the city would apply for a court order this week to evict the last group of 394 displaced foreigners in the Blue Waters Camp. As Youngsfield is owned by the military, it will not be included in the order.

The government declared all the safety sites for refugees, who fled their homes after the xenophobic violence in May, closed in October.

Refugees said conditions at Blue Waters and Youngsfield had deteriorated since electricity and water to the sites were cut and food supplies from donors had dwindled.

On a visit to Blue Waters this week, Metro Police officers prevented the Cape Argus from going in to speak to the refugees.

"There were 20 000 displaced foreigners in the safety sites and other shelters," said Cronje. "Some 19 600 have relocated and reintegrated into communities. This is the last group that have refused all offers of assistance to relocate.

"It was a lengthy process to prepare volumes of visual and documentary evidence for the eviction application, but that is now ready."

Cronje added that the city did not prescribe where the foreigners should go.

"The other foreigners relocated to their original communities or other communities of their choice, or returned to their countries of origin."

Meanwhile, the refugees at Youngsfield camp claimed that life was hard as they were living in appalling conditions, without basic services.

Many refugees refused to go back to their former local communities. They said they were afraid they would be attacked. They said that it would be better for them to return to their own countries.

The authorities at Youngsfield allowed the Cape Argus to enter the camp site.

An angry Somalian woman at the camp, Abdar Abdul, 38, who has eight children between the ages of two months and 14, said that she would be happy to go back home to Somalia.

"This is not a life," said Abdul. "It's a hell hole, it's hell here and hell back home, so we should rather go back to our own hell back in Somalia," added Abdul.

Looking at the wood that was collected by her children, she said as they did not have electricity the wood would be used to make a fire to cook whatever they could find to eat.

"I will now make a pot of food and gather my family to eat the little we have," said Abdul.

She said it broke her heart when her children asked her what was happening and why they were not going to school.

"The children ask all sorts of questions which I do not have answers to, and it fills my heart with lots of pain.

"I just don't know what to say to them," said Abdul.

Another Somalian refugee, Fatima Wadigo, 40, said that she would be glad to go home because she did not like the way that the refugees were forced to live.

"If they (the government) want to get us to our countries, then we are ready. We're tired of living like this."

With tears in her eyes, Wadigo said for many years she had lost contact with her three children and she did not know where they were in Somalia.

"I don't know whether my children are dead or alive in that war happening in my country," said Wadigo.

Pointing to the dilapidated tent they used as shelter at the camp, with flies swarming around them, Wadigo added that the conditions were unhygienic and that people got sick in such an environment.

"People have things like ring worms on their bodies, the children have them too on their heads," said Wadigo.

For many months, she said, since they were no longer provided with food, they had to resort to begging on the streets for food and money.

"We go to the streets to beg. Sometimes we make as little as R10 per day to buy food, and then share with some other families that don't have.

"Sometimes we can go without food for days," said Wadigo. - Cape Argus

Local leaders incited xenophobia attacks: study

Community leaders played a role in the xenophobic violence in May 2008, a study by the International Organisation for Migration released today showed.

"The idea that it was caused by a faceless crowd doesn't hold water," a researcher at the Forced Migration Studies Programme at Wits University, Jeanne Pierre Misago said. "Community leaders were involved," Masigo added.

He said local leaders organised xenophobic attacks to improve their credibility within the community. "They can then say they are the one true leader of the community," the researcher said.

Misago was speaking about the findings at a conference at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. He said these local leaders had some co-ordination in organising xenophobic violence in neighbouring townships.

Media reports also played a role by showing successful looting by mobs and the inability of police to handle the situation. – Sapa

Xenophobia: Let it not happen again

n May 2008, South Africa witnessed horrendous violence directed at foreigners - some of who have lived in the country for decades. Lives and property were destroyed and thousands were displaced. Against this background, it is important to be vigilant about any evidence of a resurgence of xenophobia against African immigrants.

Regrettably, there are disturbing signs that the sordid events of 2008 may happen again. In February 2009 seven Zimbabweans, four men and three women, were found dead in a shack in an informal settlement in De Doorns near Worcester in the Western Cape. It was clear that the shack had been set alight while the occupants were inside. This heartbreaking incident laid bare ethnic tensions within the small De Doors community, with Xhosa speaking residents and Sotho speaking residents accusing each other of being responsible for the murder. The Zimbabweans attribute it to xenophobia.

Reports of people being harassed, assaulted and even killed in other parts of the Western Cape are again on the increase. Two migrant shopkeepers were recently killed in their store for an apple and a banana. The robbers took the fruit and fled when they could not open the cash register. These killings bring the number of immigrants murdered in the Western Cape recently to ten.

The South African government admits it has not done enough to fight xenophobia, but says that it is committed to eradicating it. Home Affairs minister Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula has often stated that xenophobia is a serious human rights issue. She admits that it is rife and needs to be condemned and combated. Recent events in the Western Cape underscore the need for government to do more to protect the migrant community living in South Africa.

The phenomena of migration should also be seen in its broader context. Human migration - the movement of people from their usual place of residence to another - has been with societies for as long as they have existed. Migration may be between districts, provinces or countries. Meanwhile xenophobia is generally understood to be an irrational fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers, manifesting itself in the form of prejudice, discrimination or racism.

South Africa has a long experience with human migration. Over the years significant numbers of fellow Africans have moved to the country and settled in South Africa. Indications are that this trend will continue.

Many immigrants bring with them important skills that South Africa needs. They are often creative people full of initiative, driven by an enterprising spirit and tend to impart these skills as well, enriching the local communities. This is not always appreciated by some elements within the society, and the temptation to give in to prejudice and discrimination often prevails. As has been observed in the past, South Africans easily forget the hospitality extended to them during the harsh period of apartheid. As far back as 1997 the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) already identified xenophobia as a major source of concern to human rights and democracy in the country.

A solution that combines legislation, education programmes and partnerships to deal with this scourge is desperately needed. The history of South African immigration policy shows a number of recurrent themes. The various immigration acts passed between 1913 and 1991 were in essence products of racism, anti-Semitism and segregation. The acts continue to entrench discrimination and even the 1995 amendment of the 1991 Aliens Control Act did not modify the bulk of the legislation. Immigration legislation continues to reflect a constant marginalisation of other Africans from South Africa. Instead of being the other way round, the evolution of legislation in South Africa shows a drift towards less and less transparency and accountability.

The case of De Doorns is indeed the early warning of recurring xenophobia in South Africa and should serve as a wake-up call.

Source: Institute for Security Studies (ISS)

Xenophobic Violence Report

Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP) has released a new report evaluating the humanitarian response which followed the xenophobic violence in May 2008. This report can be downloaded in three versions:


• Humanitarian Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons in South Africa: Lessons Learned Following Attacks on Foreign Nationals in May 2008 (full report: 187 pages) Download.
• Humanitarian Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons in South Africa: Lessons Learned Following Attacks on Foreign Nationals in May 2008 (executive summary and recommendations: 37 pages) Download.
• Xenophobic Violence in South Africa in May 2008: the humanitarian response in Gauteng and the Western Cape – a narrative account (37 pages) Download

- Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP)

Xenophobia probe after 7 die in shack fire

Police are investigating whether xenophobia could be the motive behind a weekend shack fire which killed seven Zimbabwe foreign nationals.

Stofland community members reported the burning shack to police in the early hours of Sunday morning.

After the fire was extinguished, the bodies of four men and three women were found.

Police spokesperson Marie Louw said police were on Monday unable to release the names of the deceased, aged between 23 and 40, as their families had not yet been notified.

Ward councillor Mpumelelo Lubisi said at least four other people had been in the shack but escaped the blaze.

They and others from surrounding shacks had spent Sunday night at a community hall as they were too "scared" to return home. De Doorns police spokesperson Andre Greyling said an inquest docket had been opened. - Cape Times