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SOUTH AFRICA: Refugees adopt a "wait and see" approach
Moyiga Nduru, Inter Press Service
October 07, 2005

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=30561

JOHANNESBURG - Refugees and civil society groups have reacted cautiously to statements by a high-ranking South African official condemning the treatment of refugees by police.

In a meeting with refugee representatives held in the commercial hub of Johannesburg Wednesday, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula acknowledged that police were harassing and soliciting bribes from refugees. Recently, an investigative news programme broadcast on local television showed police taking such bribes -- behaviour the minister described as "unacceptable and disgraceful".

However, groups which deal with refugees are waiting so see whether Mapisa-Nqakula's comments will result in real improvement of South African attitudes towards refugees, who are often the targets of abuse and exploitation. This abuse has been attributed to fears that new arrivals will take jobs away from South Africans, and to media coverage said to entrench negative stereotypes of migrants.

"I didn't take the minister's comment seriously," Tapera Kapuya of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said in an interview with IPS. "Making a statement is not enough. Government policy here does not adequately address issues of xenophobia." (The coalition is a non-governmental group based in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare; it also has an office in Johannesburg.)

Kapuya's remarks were echoed by Jean-Marie Juamoto of the Johannesburg-based Association of Congolese Refugees, which groups migrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"If government officials were to talk openly and courageously like Madame Mapisa-Nqakula, there would be fewer problems for refugees in South Africa," he told IPS.

"But as we know, making a statement is one thing and implementing it is another. We'll see what the minister will do to stop the police from harassing and soliciting bribes from refugees."

Other observers were less circumspect.

"Anybody who has been following the problems of the refugees in South Africa should welcome the minister's remarks,'' Daniel Molokela of the Zimbabwe Combined Civil Society Organisation -- located in Johannesburg -- told IPS.

"There is an opportunity for the minister to engage the representatives of the refugee community in order to come out with a solution," he added.

Molokela says a commission of inquiry should be formed to probe how police have conducted themselves in previous encounters with refugees.

"Secondly, there is a need for a permanent commission, whose membership should include refugee representatives, to advise the government on refugee issues. This will add value to what the government is doing to ease the refugee crisis," he noted.

Since the demise of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has attracted increasing numbers of migrants from a range of countries. Nationals from states in Eastern Europe, as well as Rwanda, Burundi, the DRC, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda have traveled to South Africa.

The largest number of migrants -- an estimated 2.5 million -- hails from Zimbabwe. Most of these are economic refugees who have fled high unemployment and spiraling inflation in their country. Zimbabwe has experienced severe economic decline over the past five years, a trend blamed in part on the government's controversial campaign of farm seizures.

Political violence and intimidation have also taken a toll on South Africa's northern neighbour. Since 2000, Zimbabwe has held three disputed elections that were further marred by allegations of rights abuse.

Some 186,000 persons have applied for refugee status in South Africa over the past decade. Only about 29,000 have been recognised as refugees -- although home affairs officials have pledged to tackle the backlog of applications for asylum in the country.

"I have lamented the fact that our country...is failing thousands of asylum seekers by delaying the finalisation of their cases," Mapisa-Nqakula stated at a workshop held in Johannesburg in July, entitled 'Building Capacity to Manage Migration'.

"Due to...problems of capacity, we are currently sitting with a backlog of over a 100,000 unfinalised applications," she added. "I have since decided that we must create the necessary capacity to eradicate this backlog in the next six months, to restore the dignity and respect of those who deserve and are in desperate need of our protection."

Kapuya said the delay in processing asylum application was fuelling corruption.

"People are so desperate to stay in South Africa that they do anything to avoid returning to Zimbabwe. In fact, they are torn between two evils: accept (the need to offer) bribes or be deported," he noted.

"There have been instances where the police would round them up, arrest and deport them...Those who do not have money to bribe officials get deported." (END/2005)

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