Themba Gadebe
28 June 2006
Home Affairs Deputy Minister Malusi Gigaba says the government will have to do more to educate South Africans on the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the country.
Gigaba was speaking during a meeting in Pretoria with a number of young foreigners who had fled their countries to seek asylum in South Africa.
According to the young asylum seekers and refugees, some South African institutions refuse to accept official Home Affairs documents explaining their status in the country.
Gigaba said there was a need to engage with members of the SA Police Service, as "many officers may not know the responsibility of our government regarding the handling of asylum seekers and refugees."
South Africa is a signatory to the United Nations 1951 convention and 1967 protocol on refugees, requiring the country to recognise and provide protection to people classified as refugees.
South Africa's Refugee Act, passed in 1998 and effective from 2000, is the country's primary piece of legislation governing asylum seekers and refugees in the country.
Gigaba urged South Africans to be "more compassionate, a lot more understanding and friendly towards asylum seekers and refugees".
He added that the government was aware of the backlogs in the processing of applications and administration of documents for asylum seekers and refugees, and was taking steps to address this problem.
The government opened a new refugee reception office in Crown Mines in Johannesburg last week, bringing to nine the number of asylum seekers centres across the country.
At the same time, Gigaba noted that South Africa was also spending resources to secure peace and stability in a number of African countries.
"We know it is not by choice that you are here, that some time you would like to go back home, and we are trying the best we can with limited resources," he said.
Source: BuaNews
