Global Refugee Day but, in SA life is a struggle

FLEEING from conflict and other issues, refugees in South Africa continue to show resilience, despite the hardships they face here.

Today marks World Refugee Day, with this year being declared by the AU as the “Year of Refugees, Returnees and IDPs: Towards Durable Solutions to Forced Displacement in Africa”.

Advocacy and communications officer at the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, Lotte Manicom, said the resilience of refugees was commendable.

“They are forced to flee their homes. In South Africa, refugees enjoy the majority of the rights set out in our Bill of Rights.

“At our centre, we work with many refugees who have built a home, a community and an economic life here in South Africa. We witness their amazing courage and entrepreneurship, which can assist our country’s national development.

“Sometimes we work with refugees who face insurmountable barriers to justice and basic rights. It is very difficult as an asylum seeker to remain on valid documentation in South Africa,” Manicom said.

She said the Cape Town Refugee Centre still being closed posed another hurdle for those seeking asylum.

The centre has been closed for the past seven years. The Department of Home Affairs was meant to open it last year, but missed the deadline.

“In Cape Town, the ongoing closure of the Refugee Reception Office to newly arrived asylum seekers means people have to travel across the country just to get documented.

“Despite the many hardships they face here, we encounter the amazing resilience and courage shown by refugees every day,” Manicom said.

Refugee support organisation, Xaveri SA’s Martin Made said it was sad to think that many refugees in South Africa had little to commemorate the day with.

“If truth be told it will be a day of mourning for refugees, as being a refugee in South Africa is a traumatic experience in which neglect, impoverishment, and abuse is the reality.

“Their lives are a struggle for survival on the streets of South Africa, while at the same time worrying about their children’s future,” he said.