Home Affairs looking at refugees in a new light

Source: Iol.com, 14/09/2016

Our most frequent visitors are from neighbours in Africa; our
migration policies still favour former colonial powers; thousands try
for refugee status here but few get it; and business migrants are
increasingly coming from China.


The Ministry of Home Affairs has just released the Green Paper on
International Migration.


Last week, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba talked of the
importance of migration policy against the background of strains in
the EU over immigration issues and the Brexit episode, the ongoing
move of migrants from Africa to Europe, and the importance of the
money that migrants send home.


"South Africa has become a major source, transit and destination
country for mixed-migration flows which need to be managed more
robustly if the process is to have clear and tangible benefits for the
country in terms of economic development, social cohesion as well as
security," said Gigaba.


"National thinking and attitudes to international migration are
currently influenced by an unproductive debate between those who call
for stricter immigration controls and those who call for controls to
be wholesale relaxed.


"The discourse is in general characterised by strong emotions,
stereotypes, unreliable anecdotes and contested statistics," he added,
calling for discussions that would "help us move past these
simplistic, inaccurate and unhelpful ways of thinking".


The 80-page draft policy is available on the Department of Home
Affairs website and is open for comment until September 30.


"In the new paradigm, South Africans would see themselves as
responsible citizens of South Africa, Africa and the world and support
efficient, secure and humane approaches to managing international
migration," according to the green paper.


"The current paradigm exposes South Africa to many kinds of risk in a
volatile world, and by default strengthens colonial patterns of
labour, production and trade.


"It also serves to perpetuate irregular migration, which in turn leads
to unacceptable levels of corruption, human rights abuse and national
security risks."


The green paper updates 17-year-old policy, which is the basis of the
law, and argues that while Home Affairs should still lead the
management of migration, it should have its capacity substantially
boosted and should not be the sole department responsible, as a much
broader approach was needed.


More than 15 million foreigners cross South Africa's borders each
year, more than 90 percent of them SADC nationals, says the green
paper.


The biggest group applying for work-related visas are from China,
followed by Zimbabweans, Indians, Pakistanis and Nigerians.


"Permits data suggests that permanent residency and citizenship are,
to a large extent, granted to international migrants with relatively
low levels of skills and little capital," the green paper says,
arguing for this to change and scarce skills to be targeted.


South Africa gets about 70 000 applications for asylum a year, but the
green paper says more than 90 percent don't qualify, so there are
fewer than 100 000 legally recognised refugees.


Last year, more than 54 000 people were deported, at high cost to
South Africa, mostly to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.


Migration experts welcomed the green paper, but said more work was
needed.


"The paper does not consider or make any suggestions to change the
sluggish and ineffective asylum determination process," said Southern
Africa Litigation Centre director Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh.


Leon Isaacson, the managing director of Global Migration SA, pointed
to the lack of efficiency and corruption among officials as crucial
problems which the paper did not address effectively.


"The paper fails to address a major issue: the courts in South Africa
have established principles through judgments which are binding on all
in society, including the state. It is quite clear that these
principles have been ignored and that there is major misalignment in
policy formation. If we are to accept the rule of law, we have to
accept that the rulings of courts must be adhered to," said
Isaacson.


He said the green paper relied on relationships with African countries
similar to those within the EU, but the Brexit vote underlined the
risks of such relationships.
David Cote of Lawyers for Human Rights saw the focus on Africa as
important and positive.


Some of the new thinking
"Externalising the borders" by using technology to screen visitors
before they arrive to keep undesirables out and checking arrivals with
biometrics.


"The cost of these measures is far lower than that of dealing with
threats such as fugitive crime bosses once they have established
themselves in South Africa," says the green paper.


Using long-term multiple-entry visas for legitimate travellers
confirmed as low risk, and doing away with visas for AU members`
citizens with countries with reciprocal agreements. But migrants
identified as a risk would need visas.


Getting the Border Management Authority under way by March.


Reducing, for cost and security reasons, the existing 71 ports of
entry.


Focus on granting visas to migrants with critical skills, and making
requirements for starting a business more flexible "as highly skilled
professionals and artisans can start SMMEs with relatively little
capital and create jobs".


Encouraging foreign students to use their skills here after
graduating, such as by offering them permanent residency or
postgraduate visas.


An arrangement for SADC special work visas for economic migrants,
similar to the current situation for Zimbabwe and Lesotho, possibly
using a quota system. Those already here but undocumented must be
regularised.


Overhauling the asylum-seeker system to protect genuine refugees and
discourage those abusing the system. This includes setting up
asylum-seeker processing centres near borders, where they stay while
their status is determined, but also avoiding permanent camps. "These
centres should not be considered as contrary to the policy of
non-encampment, but as centres for mitigating security risks posed by
irregular migration. Only refugees, and not asylum-seekers, will be
allowed to integrate into communities," says the green paper.


Asylum-seekers would no longer have the automatic right to work or
study.


Granting citizenship in "exceptional" cases, not routinely.


More-organised efforts to integrate the migrants (including refugees)
who stay long term.