LHR alarmed at call for refugee camps

LHR is dispirited by the call for the establishment of refugee camps by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe at the weekend.

What makes Mantashe’s comments all the more worrying is its surfacing mere days after Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba publicly denounced xenophobic and loaded statements from political leaders amid ongoing violence and intolerance. The rationalisation that these camps would help “document people” does not hold water as the process has become waterlogged with the irrational closure of several refugee reception offices in recent years. There is absolutely no evidence that placing refugees in camps would assist this dilemma in any way.

South Africa enjoys one of the best refugee protection systems in the world. Part of this is that we do not have a camp system.

Camps fly directly in the face of the constitutional right to freedom of movement – a worrying thought given South Africa’s history. For further reading click here.

Statements like these serve only to fuel intolerance and we mirror Gigaba’s call for restraint from politicians.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/SA-needs-refugee-camps-Mantashe-20150412