Covid halts migration; SA records 88.8% drop in February

TRAVEL restrictions due to Covid19 saw an unprecedented decline in migrations globally, with South Africa experiencing 88.8% fewer arrivals of foreigners in February compared to last year.

Releasing the 2021 mid-year population estimates yesterday, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) said that between March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, and February 22, 2021, nearly 105 000 movement restrictions were implemented around the world.

StatsSA noted that migration to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries, which includes South Africa, is estimated to have fallen by an unprecedented 46% in the first half of 2020.

It noted that the latest Department of Home Affairs data, which is used to develop migration estimates, showed that foreign travellers arriving in SA decreased by 88.8% in February 2021 compared with February 2020, while departures from the country decreased by 89.3%.

“The impact of Covid-19 protocols, policies as well as movers’ decision-making in the time of a pandemic has been documented in countries with current and better quality migration data.

“Germany has seen zero growth in population due to declined immigration, while Australia has experienced a negative growth in population for the first time since 1945. Similarly, New Zealand has estimated a 78% decline in migrants entering the country since February 2020 (Stats NZ, 2021). Australia’s international migration statistics indicate there were an estimated 200 240 South Africans who had migrated to Australia, as at June 30, 2020.

“This was an increase from 193 864 people from the year ending June 30, 2019 (ABS, 2021),” StatsSA reported.

The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town last month noted that around 188 000 people in South Africa held asylum-seeker documentation and around 173 000 had refugee documentation.

They said asylum-seeker documentation was typically valid for anything between one and six months. Therefore, by September 2020, every person with asylumseeking documentation would have held an expired permit.

Sally Gandar, head of advocacy and legal adviser at the centre, yesterday said travel restrictions and border closures had impacted all types of migration – both forced and voluntary migration.

“We're unable to say whether there's been a reduction in persons seeking asylum in South Africa specifically because the Department of Home Affairs has not made any in-person services (including new asylum applications) available to asylum seekers and refugees since the declaration of the National State of Disaster last year,” she said.