Press statement: People’s coalition commits to fighting xenophobia in communities, workplaces and government on World Refugee Day

On this World Refugee Day, the People’s Coalition against Xenophobia commends the positive contributions that those who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, civil strife and persecution have made in their new adopted homes. Around the globe, communities will be celebrating the ingenuity and resilience of these groups. 

Tragically, millions of people will mark this day in camps that have been set up in various parts of the world, including in South Africa and neighbouring countries. Camps that were meant to be temporary in the face of humanitarian need but have ended up as permanent cities. Some people have spent their entire lives in these camps and have been denied the most fundamental of human rights, the right to dignity. 

We are proud of the fact that South Africa has chosen to promote an urban integration policy rather than a camp system.  Asylum seekers and refugees live within communities – working and studying. For the most part, South Africans have been welcoming of foreign nationals in their communities, but we still have a long way to go. The xenophobic violence which took place earlier this year demonstrates this.

However, our government’s response to the violence has been disappointing. While there are stories of individual South Africans defending their neighbours against violence, the government has chosen to use the army and police to round up allegedly undocumented migrants, equating them with “dirt” under Operation Fiela-Reclaim. There are many reasons why asylum seekers and refugees end up without valid documents such as government’s unlawful closures of refugee reception offices, dubious fining schemes and rampant corruption that has made our refugee system nearly unworkable.  The South African government must ensure that all departments comply with its legal and moral obligations toward protecting asylum seekers and refugees rather than equating migration with criminality through mass arrests, detention and deportation under Operation Fiela-Reclaim.

The overwhelming turnout at marches in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban showing solidarity with the plight of those forced to leave their home countries for survival and to denounce any form of violence against foreign nationals shows what we can do when we work together. Our Coalition has continued to work to support anti-xenophobia initiatives taking place in communities around the country.  We call on everyone to take steps to ensuring that xenophobia does not take hold in our communities. This can take the form of even the simplest things like not using terms like makwerekwere or challenging stereotypes.   

We firmly believe that the underlying causes of xenophobia have more to do with the appalling social conditions that many of our poor communities experience on a daily basis. To root out divisiveness in our communities and workplaces we have to address the unacceptable levels of poverty, and inequality that feed negative sentiment, and that provides space for exploitation and that attaches blame to immigrants. We have to ensure that employers do not exploit the desperate need for employment shared by all of those seeking work in South Africa. By paying starvation wages and treating workers as disposable commodities. To build unity and trust, we have to ensure that all of those who live in South Africa are treated equally, and have access to services regardless of their backgrounds. Equally important is the need to ensure that we have development policies in place that will serve our continent as a whole, so that migration is not a desperate measure of survival or regarded as a 'problem' but is seen as a healthy aspect of an integrated continent.

Refugee is not an identity. It is a legal status. One that recognises the need to protect the most vulnerable around the world. We must not perpetuate the division between “them” and “us”.  People with refugee status are our neighbours, our friends, our children’s friends and their parents, our local shopkeeper and the person sitting beside you in the taxi. They are members of our communities. Let us take this World Refugee Day to celebrate our diversity and the contributions that people who have been forced to flee their homes are making to South Africa. 

Signed by:
African Diaspora Forum
Awethu!
CWU
Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa
Corruption Watch
Doctors without Borders
Equal Education
FAWU
Lawyers for Human Rights
NUMSA
PAWUSA
Refugee Helpdesk
SACCAWU
SASAWU
Section27
Treatment Action Campaign