Refugee camp move ‘will add to xenophobia’
• ‘Processing centres’ planned at strategic border posts
Proposed changes to SA’s Refugee Act, including setting up “camps” close to borders, might aggravate xenophobia towards asylum seekers rather than provide much-needed relief‚ refugee policy experts warned on Monday ahead of a crucial debate in Parliament.
The government has proposed setting up “processing centres” at strategic border posts to speed up adjudication of asylum applications amid a growing backlog of cases.
But the move has been criticised as a move towards refugee “encampment”‚ which is contrary to SA’s current approach of allowing asylum seekers to work in the country, pending adjudication of cases.
By setting up border centres, SA would be obliged to provide asylum seekers with free food and shelter in terms of international law.
It could fuel simmering resentment towards foreigners living in SA‚ experts warned.
“We feel it [processing centres] could exacerbate xenophobia because people will have to be fed and provided with shelter‚” said Roshan Dadoo from the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in SA. Dadoo said the proposed amendments would result in “a lot of negative consequences, not only for asylum seekers, but generally for the concept of integrated societies”.
Corey Johnson from the Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town said shelters set up in the wake of xenophobic attacks in 2008 had prompted criticism from some quarters.
“After the attacks, some people were upset that people in the camps were getting food and shelter for free‚” Johnson said.
Concerns that free services might antagonise local residents may also result in the government providing miserly assistance‚ Johnson said.
Additional concerns about proposed legislative amendments include a lack of clarity about the fate of hundreds of thousands (estimates range between 80,000 and 1-million) of asylum seekers currently living and working in cities country-wide. The Department of Home Affairs stands accused of bulldozing the Refugees Amendment Bill through despite an incomplete green paper public-participation process.
The bill is due to be submitted to parliament’s home affairs portfolio committee this week.
Home affairs spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete defended the proposed changes.
“We are just saying it [processing centres] is to process people as they are coming in,” Tshwete said.
He added this approach would protect asylum seekers from exploitation. By managing these facilities‚ the government wanted to ensure they were properly regulated and maintained‚ Tshwete said.
But Dadoo said the enormous backlog of cases caused by a lack of manpower at refugee reception centres in major cities did not inspire confidence in the proposed new processing centres. “People remain with asylum-seeker status for 10 years. If they [the department] can’t sort this out in major cities, how are they going to have this superefficient system in border areas? It doesn’t sound very likely‚” Dadoo said.
BY SETTING UP BORDER CENTRES SA WOULD BE OBLIGED TO PROVIDE ASYLUM SEEKERS WITH FREE FOOD AND SHELTER