FPE challenge for some Moz migrants’ kids
MBABANE – The future of undocumented Mozambican migrants’ children in Eswatini is in limbo, as the Free Primary Education (FPE) Programme offered by government does not cater for them.
This has seen some of their parents making a hue and cry about the situation as they cannot afford fees charged by private schools.
An undocumented migrant is a foreign born person who does not possess a valid visa or other immigration documentation, because he or she entered that particular country without inspection or stayed longer than his or her temporary visa. Immigrant rising defines an undocumented migrant as someone who resides in any given country without legal documentation, this includes people who entered the country without inspections and proper permission from the government. Eswatini is counted among the top destination countryies for Mozambican migrants. Other countries include South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania in Africa.
Partnership
From 1979 to 1992, roughly over 1.7 million Mozambicans moved to other countries, due to the civil war between FRELIMO and RENAMO. Some of those Mozambican nationals fled to Eswatini. Through the partnership with the United Nations (UN) and other departments, King Sobhuza II allocated land where schools and clinics were constructed in Ndzevane, a community in the Lubombo Region, on the way to Lavumisa, where Mozambican migrants were housed and schooling. After the civil war, some Mozambican who wanted to return to their home country did but a significant percentage remained in Eswatini and became residents of the country. Some ended up blending in with local communities, for that reason Ndzevane, and Malindza among other places in the Lubombo Region, have a significant number of Mozambican migrants and their dependants. Adding, the proximity of these areas to Mozambique is also another contributing factor.
Notably so, even after the civil war, Mozambicans continued to leave their home country to seek greener pastures or jobs because the country’s economy after the civil war was still in a recession. After the civil war which ended in 1992, their refugee status was lifted but some used other illegal ways of entering Eswatini. For that reason, over the years Eswatini started to receive a growing number of undocumented migrants from Mozambique. The reason they were categorised as migrants was because they lacked the documentation that allowed them to be in the country.
Requirement
From 1992 to 2008, it was easier for them to attend local government school, because then parents paid school fees and the requirement for nationality documents was not an issue in most schools.
However, the introduction of FPE brought endless challenges for children of undocumented migrants from Mozambique. The FPE Act of 2010, Section 10 (1), compels parents to send their children to school. The elements of the FPE also include provision of free textbooks, free stationery, school furniture and feeding programme. The government pays E570 for every child annually. The first eight years of the FPE was funded by the European Union (EU) and the funding ended in 2018.
It is worth noting that after 1992, Eswatini through the Ministry of Home Affairs and UN agencies, opened the doors for the Mozambicans who wanted to acquire Eswatini citizenship to do so, however, those who came after that needed proper documentation like passports that would show that they entered the country legally.
Over the years after the introduction of the FPE, public primary schools started not admitting children born of undocumented migrants because they were not straight beneficiaries of the government programme. The only time children born of foreigners benefited from the programme, was when they were properly registered through the refugee programme, which was catered for through the Ministry of Home Affairs. However, in the cases of Mozambicans, it was a bit of a struggle because they no longer qualified for the refugee status.
One of those who had suffered the consequences of coming to Eswatini post 1992 and used illegal methods, were five children born of two Mozambican nationals, who live in the country.
The couple has five children aged 18, 16, 11, seven and six years old. All the children are not schooling.
According to their mother, who identified herself as Zandile Shiba, a Mozambican national who stays in Eswatini, the reason the children are not schooling is because they do not have birth certificates. Shiba said she came to the country in 2004, while the father of her children arrived in in 2006.
She said her firstborn son attended school until Grade VII but he could not sit for examinations because he did not have a personal identity number (PIN). The fact that both parents were not emaSwati meant he could not even get the temporary PINs that the Ministry of Home Affairs, in conjunction with the Deputy Prime Minister’s (DPM) Office, were distributing at the beginning of the FPE rollout. The 11-yearold dropped out in Grade IV while the others never set foot in school.
Impossible
The mother stated that she attempted to send them back to school even this year but her efforts proved to be an impossible mission.
“The head teacher told us that FPE was for emaSwati children,” she said.
Shiba said she could not afford the school fees required by private school, hence their (children) right to education was deprived. She stated that all her children were born in local government hospital but she was unable to register them. The universal health protocol on access to health states that everyone should have access to healthcare despite of their nationality or migration status. The mother said she was afraid that her children’s future was doomed because she could not afford private education. Shiba said they left Mozambique in pursuit of a better economic life.
A study that was conducted by the Eswatini Human Rights Commission indicated that children born of refugees were not direct beneficiaries of FPE and the Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC) fund. The study that was aimed at unveiling the challenges of refugees after passing their refugee status was released last year December. The study revealed that after the parents and children lost their refugee status, the former struggled to get proper documents and their children were then not absorbed by the FPE thus denying them their right to education. This is happening against the backdrop of Eswatini being a signatory of UN conventions that seek to protect the rights of refuges.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Training Bhekithemba Gama said FPE was for emaSwati and their children. Gama stated that foreign children were allowed in government schools but there were provisions of which some of them came from the Ministry of Home Affairs, under Refugee or Immigration departments.
Conditions
Section four to six of the FPE Act of 2010 states all the conditions of enrolling a foreign child in government schools.
Meanwhile, Communication Officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs Mlandvo Dlamini said the ministry had provisions under the Refugee Act, which provided for refugees and migrants. He mentioned that it was not a secret that Eswatini had quite a number of undocumented migrants from Mozambique. He encouraged Mozambicans without the proper documentation to be in Eswatini, to contact their embassy. He said the embassy would then contact the Ministry of Home Affairs and find ways on how they could assist them, so that the children were not deprived them their rights.
“Mozambicans have an embassy in Eswatini, they should utilise it,” he said.
Further, Dlamini said during the mopping exercise, the ministry welcomed undocumented migrants.
“They should also come to the registration site of the ongoing mopping exercise. They should not be afraid, no one will arrest them,” he said. Dlamini said through the mopping exercise, they would be assisted.