S. Africa to review migration policy: minister

The South African government will review its migration policy to tackle the influx of foreigners, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday.

Xenophobic attacks in April this year highlighted the necessity for the government to take interventions, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe said when briefing Parliament's Ad Hoc Committee on Violence against Foreign Nationals.

As part of the interventions, the government would address the asylum seekers' backlog through the immediate funding and capacitating of the Standing Committee on Refugee Affairs and Refugee Appeals Board, the minister said.

Other interventions would include restricting the movement of asylum applicants to a single magisterial district through the setting up of decentralised refugee reception centres at ports of entry, according to Radebe.

He also stressed the need to fund and capacitate the Immigration Services (IMS) to empower the inspectorate, revamp ports of entry as well as to create the necessary systems to deal with migration and control the inflow of migrants by setting a tolerance threshold or a quota system.

Over and above this, the government would also develop a comprehensive strategy with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) states for managing migration into South Africa, Radebe said.

These efforts are aimed at dealing with the strain between locals and foreign nationals that has affected some communities, he said.

Radebe is charing the Inter-ministerial Committee on Migration which is tasked to investigate the root causes of xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

In April this year, a new wave of xenophobic attacks led to the deaths of seven people and the displacement of thousands of foreigners.

With a total population of about 53 million, South Africa has five to six million foreign nationals, who are in the country both legally and illegally, Radebe cited official figures as saying.

The presence of too many foreigners in the country leads to severe competition for jobs, Radebe said.

He said the heavy influx of foreign nationals has led to migration laws not being adhered to due to border management laxity and the visa waiver to SADC countries.

This, he said, has led to foreign nationals staying in the country longer than they should be.

Radebe disclosed that the Department of Home Affairs is reviewing South Africa's migration policy and intends tabling a green paper in the Forum of South African Directors-General during the third quarter of the current financial year. Endit