The right to dignity...
2008-03-20 13:02
Click here to watch News24's report on this issue.
Note: This report features sound.
Cape Town - Remy Habyarimana, 30, has a diploma in electrical engineering. In his home country he tended hospital generators and fixed computers before the ethnic violence in Rwanda forced him to flee to South Africa.
Since his arrival here, the soft-spoken native of Mugusa is making a living as a gardener, this while South Africa is experiencing a shortage of engineering skills.
It is a bitter irony for most refugees and asylum seekers who could meaningfully contribute to the economy.
"We have very skilled people that are here that are forced to park cars," says Fatima Kahn, director of the Refugee Rights Project at the University of Cape Town. "They struggle to find decent jobs even though they have the skills."
Bureaucracy and bungling
Administrative bungling and lengthy bureaucracy stand in the way of a simple solution. "It is such an enormous process and there are so many obstacles in the way," says Kahn.
The Refugee Rights Project, which is linked to the United Nations High Council for Refugees (UNHCR) has worked with a group of about 300 refugee nurses to get their qualifications recognised. But Kahn says the application to become a member of the South African Nursing Council and get their qualifications recognised by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) is a lengthy process and a costly one.
It costs R350 for applications to be approved, which supposedly take three months to process. The reality is it often takes much longer.
The process of getting one's qualifications recognised can easily take up to three years, according to Kahn.
It costs R720 to speed up the process - it's a lot to ask of refugees who fled their countries with just the clothes on their backs.
More often than not, a bribe is the only way to get things moving faster. The Department of Home Affairs is adamant that it is stamping out such practices but corruption is still rife.
'Working closely'
Jackie Mashapu, a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs says they work closely with the Department of Health to confirm the status of refugee nurses and doctors looking for work.
"This is a similar situation with other institutions and organisations that wish to employ the services of asylum seekers and refugees," says Mashapu.
But Remy's skills have not been recognised. His diploma has no standing according to SAQA and he was told to start studying again. He has neither the time nor the money to do so and tending a garden in Constantia is better than nothing.
Remy was 16 years old when his father was brutally killed in the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Half Hutu and half Tutsi, Remy was threatened again and again by both warring tribes.
In 2006 he fled to South Africa with his sister and 70-year-old mother in the hopes of finding some kind of safety.
What he didn't expect was the rampant xenophobia in South Africa.
"Xenophobia in South Africa against foreigners is enormous, especially from the black community," says Sasha Pashke, a lawyer at the Refugee Rights Project.
Struggling to get along
One of the first new words Remy learned was "makwerekwere": the insulting label thrown at people from other African countries.
He relates how he slept on the streets for the first few months, purely because no landlord would let him stay once they heard his accent.
"I must say xenophobia saddens me deeply as a South African," says Kahn. "South Africans at the moment are really struggling to get along with each other.
"I think if we can abide by just one right in our constitution - our fellow human beings right to dignity, whether a person is just a visitor to our country or a refugee or a fellow South African, I think then we will be a great nation."