‘Misrepresenting the facts?’ – Scepticism over government’s migrant plan

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi overhauling legislation on citizenship, immigration and refugees is unconstitutional, according to legal organisation Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR).

Reacting to Motsoaledi’s announcement of refugee laws that will limit the rights of asylum seekers, reduce the benefits refugees enjoy, and make it harder for foreign nationals to get SA citizenship, Sharon Ekambaram – head of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) – said the new White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection would not work.

“He is misrepresenting the facts, he didn’t say a word about the current White Paper with regards to international migration,” she said.

Ekambaram said there had been a lot of consultations and many organisations handed over submissions, but “the minister is contently contentious of engagements with civil society, he ignored all of that”.

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She added: “But also he doesn’t bother to say we had a White Paper, these were the suggestions made, and this is why we are back to the drawing board.”

Ekambaram also noted that the LHR would further deliberate on this and decide on a way forward after.

However, civil organisations like Operation Dudula and Put South Africans first, expressed their support of the new migration legislation and agreed with Motsoaledi that the current migration legislation is weak and unworkable, and easily exploitable by criminal syndicates.

He yesterday said the government had published the White Paper on the three pieces of legislation and invited members of the public to comment until 19 January, 2024, proposing that government review or withdraw from international agreements to which acceded in 1996 – despite many countries’ reservations.

“Section 4.3 of the Citizenship Act requires that it be reviewed together with other sections, including those related to citizenship by naturalisation,” he said.

“The Citizenship Act and the Birth Act must be repealed in their entirety and included in a single legislation dealing with citizenship, immigration, and refugee protection. This will remove contradictions and loopholes, as is now the case with the three-piece legislation.

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“As a country, we need to press the reset button. It is us, not the United Nations, who, in 1996, when we interacted with the United Nations, committed these errors,” he said during a briefing.

“And we are here today to accede to them and say we have started the process, or we are calling forth a process of correcting them, and we are putting this to the public out there. Refugee protection and immigration legislation must provide for reservations and exceptions contained in all these conventions.”

Motsoaledi said many countries made reservations in respect of both the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol, however, SA did not make any reservations.

“This was a serious mistake on the part of the government. It is not surprising that South African courts developed jurisprudence in relation to asylum seekers and refugees, which is unfavourable to the interests of the government.”

Katlego Selokodi, a member of Dudula and Put South Africa First in Pretoria, said South Africa was finally moving in the right direction in terms of addressing the problem the country was facing with illegal migration.

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