SA denies agreement preventing refugees from seeking asylum

There is no bi-lateral agreement between South Africa and Zimbabwe to prevent refugees from the famine-wracked Horn of Africa entering South Africa, said state officials last week.The statements from the South African department of Home Affairs and the Zimbabwean Ministry of Foreign Affairs this week are in direct contrast to statements appearing on the South African Home Affairs website, and Zimbabwean news reports on Zimbabwe’s decision to bar entry to Somali and Ethiopian refugees.This comes after tens of thousands of Somalis have died and tens of thousands have left Somalia following one of the worst droughts and humanitarian crises the region has experienced in 60 years. On February 21 the Home Affairs Ministers of both countries discussed concerns over an influx of Horn of Africa refugees into Zimbabwe and South Africa.
 
The transcript of the media briefing following the bilateral discussion which is posted online reflects Zimbabwean Co-Minister of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi stating that South Africa and Zimbabwe agreed to prevent these refugees from entering the countries. “…People are dropped in neighbouring countries, they walk into Zimbabwe, traverse Zimbabwe and then cross into South Africa. We need to plug these areas,” stated Kembo Mohadi. Mohadi further stated: “We are even working with the IOM (International Organisation for Migration) to plug these loopholes… we have agreed we will do everything in our power to prevent these people from coming into the country. But over and above this, we want to take this issue to SADC so that our neighbours within SADC are aware of our bilateral position, and maybe to the AU so the continent is aware of our position.” But when questioned on their position last week, Home Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the department was “not aware of any bilateral agreement” in February this year. Zimbabwean Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Joey Bimha, denied borders were being closed. He said there was a concern that refugees were using Zimbabwe as a transit point to South Africa and that both countries were looking at measures to contain the influx of people from the Horn of Africa, but that there was no formal agreement that Zimbabwe would close its borders to the refugees.
 
Closing a border is not necessarily a way to resolve problems. This is only a partial solution but there has been no decision to close borders,” he said. However, director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Harare, Joan Mtukwa, said it was possible there was an agreement between the two countries but that nothing was being officially declared. Malawi was also preventing people from moving through the country, said Mtukwa.
 
Head of the Lawyers for Human Rights Refugee and Migrants Rights Programme, Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, said the LHR was not aware of such a bilateral agreement but both Zimbabwe and Mozambique are preventing asylum seekers from passing through their countries due to South Africa not accepting them. She said by not accepting asylum seekers, South Africa is contravening the SA Refugees Act and the UN Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, of which SA is a signatory. “SA has and is refusing entry to asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa and this is in contravention of these laws,” she said. Producing an LHR statement which she co-wrote, Keogh said South Africa was implementing the First Safe Country principle which meant the first safe country an asylum seeker arrived in was responsible for assessing their asylum claim. Yet this principle in itself was in violation of both national and international law.
 
Senior Researcher at Wits University’s African Centre for Migration and Society, Roni Amit, said: “Countries are free to enter into border control agreements and to decide how to manage entry at the border. The issue is how this affects their international obligations towards asylum seekers, who they cannot simply turn away without some guarantee that they will be able to access fair asylum procedures.”
 
The SA Department of International Relations did not respond despite repeated attempts for comment. – Fadela Slamdien