Johannesburg - Human rights groups have urged the African Union (AU) to call on the South African authorities to provide a long-term security guarantee for refugees, migrants and asylum seekers living in the country.
Amnesty International and other 12 civil society organisations issued this call on the sidelines of the AU summit now underway in Johannesburg.
They noted that the summit was taking place against the backdrop of continuing xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals living in the country by locals.
“This is the moment for the AU to put pressure on the South African government to resolve the persistent occurrence of xenophobia in the country and ensure there is no impunity for the perpetrators,” said Noel Kututwa, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Southern Africa Region. “The AU must remind the government of its obligation to protect everyone living in its territory from violent attacks, regardless of their status. Xenophobic attacks must end.”
The NGOs said South Africa “has a long history of xenophobic attacks against asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. In 2008, 62 people were killed and hundreds of thousands left displaced in a spate of xenophobic attacks in the country.
“In the same way that African leaders must hold each other to account for delivering on good governance and human rights, they are also accountable for protecting people within their borders.
“At this week’s African Union Summit, we are calling on the AU to help South Africa demonstrate its leadership in addressing xenophobia and protecting the rights of all, including refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers,” said Sipho Mthathi, Oxfam South Africa’s Executive Director.
The NGOs specifically urged the AU to publicly urge South Africa to fully and effectively implement the AU Commission’s recommendations, in particular, to:
* Immediately end the attacks on foreign nationals in the country and put measures in place to ensure that it does not recur.
* Fully and transparently investigate the circumstances leading to the xenophobic attacks and other acts of violence perpetrated against foreign nationals.
* Ensure that all perpetrators of the attacks are brought to justice in accordance with the law.
* Take immediate steps to ratify and domesticate the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa as well as make a declaration under the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights that would allow direct access for individuals and Non-governmental Organisations to the Court.
It seems unlikely that the AU will in fact issue any such frank public calls on South Africa on the issue of xenophobia. Though the topic is on the agenda of the summit, the indications are that it is being handled very delicately. The Secretary General of the AU Commission Jean Mfasoni said at a press conference earlier this week that the xenophobic violence in South Africa was not the reason that the subject was on the summit agenda. Rather the AU would be drawing lessons and applying best practices for all countries as xenophobia could occur anywhere.
Though he was probably just being diplomatic, other delegates have said that his remarks confirmed the impression that xenophobia in South Africa was being handled in the context of a wider more general discussion about migration. South African officials have said that the discussion should include an examination of what the countries of origin of illegal immigrants should be doing to discourage their people fleeing to other countries.
AU Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma touched on this in her opening of the AU Executive Council meeting on Thursday when she urged African countries to implement the continent’s ambitious development programme, Agenda 2063, so that African people only left their countries because they wanted to and not because they had to.
ANA