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'Give refugees free education'
30/08/2005 22:52 - (SA)
Cape Town - The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) called on South Africa on Tuesday to provide refugees and asylum seekers with free education.
Abel Mbalinya of UNHCR said: "Refugee children are entitled to go to school, but very few are actually going because many can't afford it.
"What we are calling for is free primary school education for the children."
He was addressing the home affairs portfolio committee and hundreds of visiting refugees in the old house of ssembly in Cape Town.
Discussing the plight of the 28 000 refugees and asylum seekers, Mbalinya also called on the government to provide social assistance on the same level as provided to citizens.
"Social assistance should be extended to vulnerable refugees in the form of grants to the same extent that such assistance is granted to permanent residents or nationals."
Discrimination
He said that while refugees were allowed to work, many did not, because potential employers did not realise refugees and asylum seekers were entitled to do so - or because they were discriminated against.
The University of Cape Town's law refugee rights project had found that about 170 000 asylum applications had been made since 1994.
Of these, 35 000 were granted, 40 000 were rejected and 95 000 were still pending.
Mbalinya said South Africa had a relatively small refugee- and asylum-seeking population when the global figure of 17 million was considered.
Despite "promising" legislation, it was not the friendliest destination for displaced people.
Old traditions
He said document processing delays and xenophobic tendencies were common.
He said: "It appears that here old traditions die hard. Here, without a proper ID book, you are less than human in terms of treatment."
He said that while recognising the department of home affairs was making a concerted effort to reduce the backlog of applications, the process of providing refugees with documentation took too long.
This was confirmed by refugees.
A man from Burundi said: "It takes at least two weeks of sleepless nights on pavements outside home affairs offices."
96 refugees killed
He said after spending two hungry months on the road, Burundian refugees arrived and found themselves in more trouble than when they started.
Abdirashid Abdulahi Shuriya of Sudan said he was aware of 96 refugees who had been murdered in South Africa since his arrival nine years ago.
He said: "They were killed and all their possessions taken and not one of their cases has been dealt with."
A presentation by the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) accused authorities of "ongoing human rights violations".
The forum said it had proof of torture, murder, sexual molestation and soliciting of bribes by home affairs officials.
It said: "ZEF has possession of irrefutable evidence of past and ongoing human rights violations bedevilling asylum seekers and refugees seeking sanctuary in SA."
- SAPA
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