South Africa 'reviewing' asylum seeker's rights

Image by Sokwanele - Zimbabwe via Flickr

Source: IRIN

Nearly half a million asylum seekers in South Africa may lose their right to earn a living or study while their refugee status is being determined after indications that the government plans to amend legislation governing those rights.

An announcement on 23 November that Cabinet is "reviewing" the minimum rights of immigrants, including the right to work and study, was followed by a media briefing two days later at which Mkuseli Apleni, Director General of the Department of Home Affairs, suggested that the asylum seeker system was being abused.

"The right [of asylum seekers] to work and study has created a problem," he said. "People by default are going through the asylum seeker process in order to be able to work, but the majority are economic migrants using a back door."

Apleni noted that South Africa has the largest number of asylum seeker applications in the world. The system needed "streamlining", he said, and an amendment to current legislation would likely be passed in the next legislative year.

Refugee rights groups have reacted to the announcement with alarm. A joint statement by several civil society groups, including the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, and People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP), argues that the review is a precursor to the withdrawal of rights that will "force more asylum seekers underground, thus making them liable to exploitation".

"It's going to limit people's employment opportunities, deny children living here a right to education, [and] increase tensions with locals," predicted PASSOP director Braam Hanekom.

South Africa's 1998 Refugees Act is silent on the question of whether someone who has been issued an asylum seeker permit can work or study while awaiting a decision on their refugee status. An attempt by Home Affairs to expressly prohibit work and study was challenged when a case was brought to court in 2003 by the Cape Town-based Legal Resources Centre (LRC) on behalf of a Zimbabwean woman and her disabled son.

The matter went to the Supreme Court of Appeals, where the judge ruled that freedom to work and study were "an important component of human dignity", and guaranteed by the country's Bill of Rights.

"The judgement was a resounding endorsement of asylum seekers' right to work, and they're obviously trying to override that," said William Kerfoot, the LRC attorney who handled the case.

Asylum seekers, who are not eligible for any kind of social support, often wait years for their applications to be processed, and prohibiting them from working "effectively turned them into criminals or beggars", he commented.

More than half of asylum seeker applications in South Africa are made by Zimbabweans fleeing economic hardship and human rights violations. Very few of them are eventually recognized as refugees, but applying for asylum is often their only legal avenue for remaining in the country.

The resulting flood of applications has created a backlog in the asylum system that the Department of Home Affairs attempted to address in 2009 by introducing a special dispensation to lift the threat of deportation from undocumented Zimbabwean migrants.

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SA denies Congolese albino gay man asylum

Charles Ngoy

By Paul Canning

A gay, albino Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) refugee has been refused asylum in South Africa in what advocates say is an increasing pattern of refusals for LGBT asylum seekers.

Charles Ngoy was refused asylum, in part, because Congo does not have a sodomy law due to its legacy as a Belgian and not British colony (although one has been proposed, reportedly directly inspired by the infamous Ugandan 'kill gays' bill. ).

However gay people in Congo suffer as in most of the rest of Africa from discrimination, rejection and harassment.

Albino people face discrimination and marginalization in their communities, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“They have trouble getting work, in accessing adequate health care, in finding marriage partners and in entering education,” UNDP said.

“Albino children do not feel loved by their parents, brothers and sisters. Albino women are subject to discrimination from other women. Women who give birth to albino babies are often mocked or rejected.”

A report in June by the Research Directorate of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRBC) said that, in general, society favours criminalizing “acts against nature.” Homosexuality is taboo in the DRC. There are no public places for homosexuals in the capital city of Kinshasa. It reported that:

“Discrimination against LGBTI individuals is widespread, and they are often rejected by their communities” and are subjected to threats, retaliation, insults and social exclusion.

Junior Mayema, a gay Congolese refugee in South Africa who was interviewed for South African TV recently, fled after his mother tried to inject him with gasoline. He was hunted, shunned and banished.

Charles told the South African eNews Channel:

"In DRC I have never been arrested for my sexual orientation but I've been discriminated against by Congolese people, by friends by family. Because of that, it is not an easy life. Also I'm facing double persecution because I'm an albino... in Congo, if you are albino, and you are not protected by your family it's very difficult because not everyone in Congo likes albinos."

David Von Durgsdorff of Refugee Rights advocacy group Passop said:

"The case of Charles is not the exception, it's the norm. We're seeing more and more cases like this."

"We are very worried about these developments. It makes it clear that the Department of Home Affairs is compromising the refugee status determination process and turning it into an accelerated refugee rejection process."

"Homosexual asylum-seekers from many parts of Africa who have legitimate claims for asylum are being rejected left, right and center. The current system is failing and needs to be improved urgently."

"The case of Charles represents a particularly blatant failure, because he faces a double persecution in Congo, being both albino and gay. We have helped him appeal the decision and will continue to follow this and other such cases closely."

Charles grew up and spent most of his life living in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa.  His parents divorced when he was less than a year old. The main reason for the divorce was because his father’s mother had a problem with the colour of his skin – he was albino.

Growing up he did not have a family experience. He lived with his father most of the time during school, but did not feel loved by him. His father’s new wife did not accept him as part of the family and treated him horribly.

When Charles was nine he started developing gay feelings. These feelings grew stronger and during his teenage years he felt more and more drawn to intimacy with men. However, he was very careful to keep this secret, because he knew very well that in Congolese tradition being gay was unacceptable.  For this reason he tried to suppress his sexual orientation, but it became too strong. When he was 18, he started having some small first relationships and boyfriends.

Despite these first few experiences, he was living in the shadows. He couldn’t share his secret with anyone.  He was already constantly persecuted, vulnerable and afraid because he was an albino, and was trying hard to be accepted not just by society, but also by his family. Because of this fear of being further marginalised and persecuted he hid his homosexuality.

Hiding his homosexuality meant that he was constantly aware of how he walked, talked or what he did, and tried to suppress his natural character because of fear of being discovered.

"You can get beaten and out casted by society if it is discovered that you are gay" he says. 

He had little choice but to keep his sexuality a secret. Nobody in his family knows he is gay, to this day.

Although he had a boyfriend and a job as a school administrator, he didn’t have peace or safety in his life. Realising that he would never be able to find peace in Congo, and hence could never be happy, he decided that leaving was the only way he could be happy.

He arrived in South Africa two weeks ago. It has been a tough two weeks for him. He applied for refugee status, but was rejected by a Department of Home Affairs official.

His first impressions are that people here also judge him for being albino, and he has sensed a similar homophobia. But at least there is safety and the necessary structures and laws exist that enable gays to live openly and not have to walk through life hiding their true identity. 

Ngoy says he will appeal the decision.

HT: Matuba Mahlatjie

Related articles

• South Africa begins removing Zim refugees: report (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Video: South Africa risks refoulement of gay Zimbabweans in chaotic repatriation (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Audio: LGBT asylum seekers in South Africa (madikazemi.blogspot.com) 
• Video: South African TV doco on LGBT refugees (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Does BP think spreading feces a good way to deter immigrants?

Picture PASSOP

By Paul Canning

Does BP agree with spreading feces to deter immigrant laborers?

The South African refugee advocacy group PASSOP (People against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty) and the Western Cape branch of Young Workers Forum of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU YWF) want to know.

On Wednesday 12 October they discovered that a BP service station was doing just that in the Cape Town suburb of Salt River.

It was smeared on a picket fence and on the street in front of the BP location. The low fence was where immigrant job seekers sit daily, waiting for jobs.

COSATU YWF and PASSOP asked what was going on and was told that the “head of security” instructed that the smearing be done - and with the “full knowledge of BP management” - and not for the first time, despite complaints.

Some of those effected have now lodged a complaint with the South African human rights commission.

South Africa hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees, including, it is believed, thousands of LGBT Africans fleeing repressive societies and regimes. South Africa grants refugee status on the basis of sexual orientation. 1.5 - 3 million Zimbabweans now live in South Africa.

Most refugees to South Africa arrive by bus after journeys that last weeks from countries such as Congo, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, and Tanzania, when they get close to the border, those without legal papers walk through the bush and swim across rivers to avoid being sent back.

In May 2008 a series of xenophobic riots left 41 African refugees dead and 21 South African citizens. More attacks followed a year later. There were allegations that the pogroms were promoted by local politicians, though both the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) have spoken out against xenophobia.

Zimbabweans fleeing political violence are labeled undocumented "economic migrants" and many human rights monitors are convinced the South African government is committed to expelling as many Zimbabweans as possible, as soon as possible.

At the beginning of this year the scale of undocumented Zimbabwean migrant applications for regularisation forced the government to delay mass repatriations. Those are now believed to have started.

Related articles

• In South Africa, confusion, desperation surrounds massive planned Zimbabwe migrant removals (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• South Africa begins removing Zim refugees: report (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Life as a gay refugee in South Africa (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

South Africa begins removing Zim refugees: report

Image by Sokwanele - Zimbabwe via Flickr

By Paul Canning

The South African government has denied that it has started removing Zimbabwean refugees but the South African refugee group PASSOP says "we are now convinced that the Department of Home Affairs has lifted South Africa’s moratorium on deporting Zimbabweans."

The Zimbabwe Herald newspaper 4 October quoted Beitbridge assistant regional Immigration Officer Tamari Shadaya as saying that:

“We received a memo from the South African Home Affairs Department on Thursday last week notifying us of their plans to deport undocumented Zimbabweans.”

Shadaya also reportedly said that “deportations will commence with immediate effect, though we are yet to receive any repatriates from that country.”

PASSOP has exposed abuse of asylum seekers at refugee reception centers compromising their right to apply for refugee status. They also say that any deportations are in direct contradiction to the recent undertakings made by the Department of Home Affair’s Director General, Mkuseli Apleni, while addressing the Parliamentary Portfolio committee for Home Affairs. Apleni said that the government would not embark on deportations of Zimbabweans until the Zimbabwean Documentation Project has been completed, appeals reviewed and the minister approved deportations.

About 275 000 applications for permits were received under the project and South Africa has insisted it will lift a moratorium on Zim deportations when the process is complete.

Passop say that it will now be impossible to clarify how many people are in South Africa:

"It is obvious that sadly many immigrants in South Africa will ‘go underground’ into hiding and be unwilling to open doors to officials conducting the census."

"The number of immigrants living in South Africa has been subject to much speculation. In particular the number of Zimbabweans has been a hotly contested: while the Department has claimed that the vast majority had been documented in the recent Zimbabwean Documentation Project, many civil society organizations, including the IOM, IDASA House and Human Rights Watch have claimed that there could be as many as 1.5 million Zimbabweans in South Africa."

"This latest move will continue to obscure the actual number of Zimbabweans living in South Africa. South Africa will have to keep depending on deportation numbers and estimates hence forth, as surely undocumented Zimbabweans will not answer doors to be counted and will do everything they can to avoid arrest and deportation."

PASSOP fears that deportations will stoke xenophobia and “Afrophobic” tensions and raised the possibility of communities “witch hunting”, with neighbors turning on their neighbors, South Africans turning on fellow Africans.

"We believe that deportation is an Apartheid tendency," they say, "and that deportations of fellow Africans is un-African."

Gabriel Shumba from the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum told SW Radio Africa 4 October that deportations are a bad idea, saying “the political situation (in Zimbabwe) has not yet changed enough to accommodate forced returns.”

“We don’t think Zimbabwe is in a situation that can be called ‘stable’. There is another election on the cards and we believe violence is very likely,” PASSOP’s Braam Hanekom said.

Related articles

• In South Africa, activists win extension of Zim documentation deadline - but problems remain (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In South Africa, confusion, desperation surrounds massive planned Zimbabwe migrant removals (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Life as a gay refugee in South Africa (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Zimbabwe 'disappears' refugees (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Gay Africans react to Obama's UN comments

By Paul Canning

Gay African activists have reacted positively to President Obama's inclusion of LGBT human rights in his annual address to the United Nations General Assembly - a first for an American President.

Obama said:

"No country should deny people their rights, the freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but also no country should deny people their rights because of who they love, which is why we must stand up for the rights of gays and lesbians everywhere."

According to Mark Bromley of The Council for Global Equality, a coalition of organisations working to promote human rights and LGBT equality in the United States and overseas, the inclusion of LGBT human rights is very significant as it reflects the Obama administration’s foreign policy priorities and "there is always intense competition to get issues included in the speech. It’s definitely considered prized placement."

Bromley noted that President George Bush had refused to join a UN statement calling on countries to decriminalise homosexual relations.

"President Obama, in contrast, stood before that same institution to pledge U.S. support for LGBT rights globally," he said.

The United States has, under Obama, led efforts for LGBT at The United Nations and in other international bodies. Obama personally spoke out against Uganda's 'Kill gays' Anti-Homosexuality bill - comments which drew significant attention in Africa. The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, His Grace Henry Luke Orombi, said:

“It is distressing that Barack Obama a fellow African would promote racial civil rights as morally equivalent to immoral civil behaviour. We are Africans and know the difference between moral behaviour and responsibility as opposed to civil rights being compared to homosexuality. Will Barack Obama represent our interests in this matter?”

In January Obama said he was "deeply saddened" by the murder of Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato.

In June Obama called the passage of the first LGBT human rights resolution at the United Nations "a significant milestone in the long struggle for equality, and the beginning of a universal recognition that LGBT persons are endowed with the same inalienable rights - and entitled to the same protections - as all human beings."

He said that the United States "stands proudly with those nations that are standing up to intolerance, discrimination, and homophobia."

"LGBT persons are entitled to equal treatment, equal protection, and the dignity that comes with being full members of our diverse societies. As the United Nations begins to codify and enshrine the promise of equality for LGBT persons, the world becomes a safer, more respectful, and more humane place for all people." 

Ugandan lesbian activist Jacqueline Kasha Nabagesera yesterday told the Global Summit Against Discrimination and Persecution, held to coincide with the UN General Assembly, that "not every war is fought with guns" and that "statements and resolutions from the US help. We need American support against the LGBT hate bill in Uganda." (Video of her speech below, she says Ugandan diplomats told her she should be arrested for treason).

African gay leaders we spoke to saw Obama's latest comments as extremely important for their struggle in a continent where the LGBT movement is growing but faces stiff and organised resistance.

Ali Sudan, President of the underground LGBT group Freedom Sudan, said that the comments "gave me hope".

"LGBT individuals suffer or are killed everyday by the hand of their countrymen especially here in Africa and the Middle East," he said. "We need to stand together and keep fighting to gain our rightful rights as humans. I hope his message will inspire many other people to stand with us in this fight."

Stéphane Koche of Cameroon's Association Camerounaise pour la défense de l'homosexualité (ADEFHO) described Obama's UN comments as "very inspiring for the world, including Africans."

"It means a lot. It highlights common values, common hopes, common aspirations and it's very simple to understand."

Braam Hanekom, coordinator of South Africa's PASSOP (People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty), also found the comments "inspiring". He said:

"Despite the immense political challenges we believe he is facing, President Obama was unafraid to address the rights of the LGBTI community. He used a powerful platform and addressed many of our leaders."

"His inclusion should be seen as a clear message and we hope that pressure will be increased on all countries that have failed to protect and/or who have even actively demonized the LGBTI community."

"We should warn him that many of our African leaders are, what I call "chameleons", they tend to "care" for the LGBTI community where it is popular and it benefits them, while in their countries and communities (even in AU meetings), they tend to be homophobic (where and when it benefits them politically). We hope that he will show them that the USA will not support leaders who have failed to recognize the rights of the LGBTI community."

"The USA should also start challenging those who fail to make their position clear, as well as hold accountable those who "claim" to respect LGBTI rights. It is also important to state clearly that many Africans are part of our local LGBTI communities and thus there is no substance to nonsensical claims from certain "right-wing populist" leaders that "it is Un-African", instead it is "Un-African" to disown our brothers and sisters for who they love or what they believe."

David Kuria, a Kenyan gay leader and politician, "read the statement with delight."

"When a President such as Obama with African roots talks in favour of gay rights, at the very least it shows that not everyone is homophobic and that in fact African leaders are in a class of thinning minority."

Kuria said that there are now some African politicians who are prepared to stand up for LGBT "albeit not too loudly." He suggested that they may be "emboldened to be more vocal" if US embassies follow up the comments with "tangible action".

"We are trying as activists," Kuria said, "to build a narrative that shows LGBTI rights as the next cycle of or frontier of Human Rights development in Africa. First we had decolonization, then  women's rights and now the last frontier is LGBTI rights."

"The same arguments, including religious, against LGBTI rights had been used against women's rights so it's not a hard narrative to generate. President Obama's words falls quite in place in this story because his predecessors had prophetically spoken in similar terms of the previous cycle of rights."

Some commentators were more critical. Writing on death + taxes, US gay activist Andrew Belonsky said:

"The real test, however, will be whether the Obama Administration actually works said rights into their policy, especially in Arab nations undergoing Democratic transformations."

"The States have failed to normalize homosexuality in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. If Obama wants to be seen as a man of his word, he and the State Department will make clear that new governments like those in Egypt and Tunisia in need of American support and money have no choice but to accept and celebrate their LGBT citizens. If they don’t, they will be failing the democratic dreams that fueled their uprisings in the first place."

Video of Obama's speech

Read more »

Life as a gay refugee in South Africa

Junior Mayema

By Junior Mayema

Life in South Africa as a gay black foreigner is a horrendous nightmare. Well, many days I wish it were just a nightmare. But it is the reality for me. This reality is one full of intolerance, discrimination, and prejudice. I am a refugee and a gay activist – this is my story.

I fled my home after my mother tried to inject me with a syringe full of gasoline when she discovered that I was gay. After leaving my mother’s house, I began living with my father and I attended Bandundu University. I became friends with other gay students at the university and began to date and experiment. During this time, my father saw a picture taken of me kissing another man. After confronting me, my father and mother forced me into a “healing process” run by a pastor. I was made to fast for days in order to expel the “devil spirit” out of my body.

When I did not change my behavior, my father spread the news of my homosexuality to the community. Local boys began to beat me. I was particularly weary of a notorious group that hunted homosexuals. My friends and family shunned and banished me. My life was in danger and I had nowhere to go, so I came to South Africa.

I came full of hope that things would get better; that I would be able to live my life without fear of being persecuted for who I am. And in some ways I do feel safer here than I did in Congo. But after being here for a year, I can honestly say that this hope did not come true.

Life is tough here. Firstly, there is a lot of homophobia in the Congolese community in South Africa. When I first arrived, I lived with my cousin. When he found out from my family in Congo that I was gay, he kicked me out on the street. My mother ensured that no other family member in South Africa took me in after that. Since then I have moved around a lot, living with different Congolese people, but the story is always the same: once they detect that I am gay, they kick me out.

I also lived in some shelters and there I experienced xenophobia from South Africans. Even some members from the South African LGBTI community were not helpful. Their priority is to help South African LGBTI individuals, but other LGBTI refugees, like myself, have less access to support groups and assistance. It is tiring to be reminded every day that you are ‘not a South African’, and it hurts even more when it comes from other LGBTI people.

I wish I could just get to my feet and find a job. But finding a job in South Africa is tough enough as it is; trying to find a job as an openly gay foreigner is close to impossible. I have been looking for a job since I came here and I felt that most of the managers were judging me by my ‘gay’ physical appearance. Although the South African constitution protects LGBTI people from discrimination, homophobia is deeply rooted in South African society.

The majority of South Africans, like in most other African countries, think homosexuality is a western culture emulated by some African youths who are being recruited by white sugar daddies into homosexuality.

What can be done to change the desperate situation that I and countless other LGBTI refugees in South Africa are facing? Changing the culture of homophobia is difficult, but it has to be done, step by step. More people need to start campaigning against homophobia within our communities. We need to raise awareness and take action against xenophobia and racism in parts of the South African LGBTI community. We need to create a shelter or accommodation for LGBTI refugees in South Africa to help them get on their feet.

We have to build up a job referral system for LGBTI people to tolerant or ‘gay-friendly’ businesses and managers.

It is unlikely that things will get better in the near future. Yesterday I got kicked out by yet another Congolese host, on my 24th birthday. But hope is what dies last.

Junior Mayema is a volunteer with People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP)

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• Audio: LGBT asylum seekers in South Africa (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

In South Africa, confusion, desperation surrounds massive planned Zimbabwe migrant removals

Source: Mail + Guardian

By Kathleen Chaykowski

UPDATE: PASSOP said last night:

"We welcome the announcements made at the press conference earlier today. After reviewing the transcripts we believe that the Minister has not only only extended the deadline for Zimbabweans waiting for their permits but has also extended the moratorium on deportations."

Confusion about the future of Zimbabweans in South Africa deepened this week after the home affairs department suggested that those who have applied for special permits to stay in the country could be granted an additional month to finalise their papers, but avoided the word "extension".

Meanwhile, nongovernmental organisations are gearing up anxiously to receive thousands of Zimbabweans who might be deported, but officials remain tight-lipped about the scale of deportations that could follow the new deadline.

Homes affairs deputy director general Jackson McKay said last week the department would continue to issue the special permits into August, but would complete reviewing applications for them on July 31. The department had previously indicated it was on track to issue all the permits by July 31.

The government launched its Zimbabwe Documentation Project (ZDP) in September 2009, saying many Zimbabweans were in South Africa illegally and needed to apply for proper documents.

"We will conclude the adjudication of the [ZDP] applications by July 31 and finalise all outstanding matters in August," McKay said at a press conference last week. "This will allow us sufficient time to dispatch all the required permits."

If this is an extension, it is still too short, said Braam Hanekom, the director of People against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (Passop).

"August had never been mentioned before as part of permit distribution," he said. "Zimbabweans are panicking and really worried."

For one Zimbabwean responding to this development on Passop's website, the department's announcement means "it's all guesswork right now".

He continued:

"I went to the showground offices today to check the status of my application and we were told the offices were under construction. We were then told to leave and not given a date when we could check again."

This week home affairs spokesperson Manusha Pillai told the Mail & Guardian the August deadline would allow the department to dispatch permits and enable people to complete their applications.

Passop wrote to home affairs early in July pleading for a minimum two-month extension to the ZDP deadline. "We welcome the month extension, but we are concerned it isn't enough," Hanekom said.

Read more »

In South Africa, activists win extension of Zim documentation deadline - but problems remain

Image by Sokwanele - Zimbabwe via Flickr

Source: SW Radio Africa news

By Alex Bell

The South African government has extended the deadline for Zimbabweans to get permits to remain legally in the country, with thousands of people still to receive their paperwork.

The Zimbabwe Documentation Project was set to be finalised at the end of this month, and South African officials said they would resume deporting undocumented Zim nationals when the process was completed.

But according to the Cape Town based refugee rights group PASSOP, thousands of people have not got their documents yet, and fear has been rising that they face possible deportation in the coming weeks. The group then wrote to South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma this week, asking for a two month extension on the deadline, to ensure that every Zimbabwean who successfully applied for permits could get them.

According to PASSOP, the deadline has now been moved, after the Home Affairs Department’s Deputy Director General Jackie McKay said the process will be concluded at the end of August, instead of the end of July.

About 276 000 applications for permits were made by Zim nationals since the documentation process was launched last year, despite more than two million Zimbabweans estimated to be in the country. South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs last month said it still needed to hand over about 100 000 permits, but insisted that it would meet its July 31st deadline. The department also confirmed that it would be resuming deportations when the process was completed.

PASSOP’s Langton Miriyoga told SW Radio Africa on Friday that the one month extension on the deadline is welcome, but he said this still might not be adequate, given the high number of people still waiting. He agreed with the estimate that at least 100 000 people have not got their permits yet.

“This extension gives Zimbabweans some breathing room, but we are concerned that not everyone will get their documents in this extra month. There is also the concern that many people are yet to get their passports from the Zimbabwean consulate, and this might take longer than a month,” Miriyoga said.

Zimbabwe’s failure to issue enough passports to its citizens in South Africa has been the major stumbling block of the documentation process, which has repeatedly been extended since it was launched last September. Thousands of Zim nationals were eventually forced to apply for South African permits without passports. But without these documents, they can’t finalise their applications or regularise their stay in South Africa.

PASSOP’s Miriyoga said the South African government should be putting more pressure on the Zimbabwean government to ensure the passports are rolled out in time. He meanwhile said that the South African authorities have not yet confirmed if they are adjusting their plans to resume deportations to match the new deadline.

“They haven’t said anything about the deportations yet. This is a major issue that people are concerned about and we will need to engage with the authorities on this,” Miriyoga said.

Related articles

• Video: South Africa risks refoulement of gay Zimbabweans in chaotic repatriation (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
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Video: South Africa risks refoulement of gay Zimbabweans in chaotic repatriation

Source: VOAvideo



By Paul Canning

As South Africa gears up to remove more than one million refugees, advocates are warning that gay asylum seekers risk being 'refouled' - returned to a place where their lives or freedoms could be threatened.

Most asylum seekers in South Africa are from Zimbabwe - but the country hosts possibly thousands of LGB and T people fleeing repression from all over African.

It has set a July 31 deadline for registration, after which it will start repatriations. Advocates have called for an extension citing an error-filled and often chaotic process which has led to many being without the proper papers to stay.

Braam Hanekom from the refugee advocacy group PASSOP - the only group with a LGBT refugee support project - says that they have written an urgent appeal to the Minister of Home Affairs for a two month extension because through their monitoring "there is no possible way that applicants of the Zimbabwean Dispensation Permits will be able to collect their permits in time."

PASSOP surveyed the Refugee Reception Office (RRO) in Cape Town (see report below) and found that:

"Given the number of newcomers and those seeking renewal who are turned away each day, there are hundreds of people who try to get or renew papers who are unable to through no fault of their own. This makes the heavy jail time attached to being undocumented harsh and unnecessary."

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

"The DHA [Home Affairs department] needs to abolish its rule that certain days are reserved for certain people, in addition to making the process more fair, less corrupt, and more efficient. To aid newcomers who are turned away due to lines being too long, it might help to give them a receipt to prove that they came while their border passes were still valid, or to reserve them a space in line for the following week or day. Perhaps opening on Saturdays would also help to relieve the pressure."

"PASSOP has no reason to believe that the situation is different at the other five refugee reception offices around the country, and in fact probably worse in Pretoria and Johannesburg, making this monitoring relevant nationwide."

Human Rights Watch urged the government in June not to close a refugee processing centre in Johannesburg.

PASSOP say that the Zimbabwean Consulate has been "both uncooperative and inefficient" in delivering passports to applicants.

"Thus, while we recognize that there is a need for projects to have deadlines, guided by our monitoring observations, it is our view that given the proximity of the Zimbabwean Dispensation Project deadline and the large amount of permits yet to be issued, there is a need to extend the current deadline."

Hanekom points out that, although the plight of Zimbabwean LGBTI immigrants is at the forefront:

"We maintain that (considering the sad state of LGBTI rights in most other African countries) that any member of the LGBTI African immigrant community in South Africa has a right to obtain asylum seeking permits and ultimately refugee status."

Although Section 1(1)(xxi) of the Refugees Act says that “‘social group’ includes, among others, a group of persons of particular gender, sexual orientation, disability, class or caste”, PASSOP say that "many LGBTI people are turned away unjustly.".

"The status determination process, and the decisions that emerge from this process, do more than just violate refugee and administrative law.  They also have a profound effect on bona fide asylum seekers — those who are genuinely fleeing persecution. For these individuals, receiving a decision stating that it is safe for them to return to their country of origin — a decision based on outdated information, an incorrect application of the law, or factors that are in no way related to their experience and which do not take their experience into account — can result in a serious threat to their life and liberty."

A report by Roni Amit, 'Protection and Pragmatism: Addressing Administrative Failures in South Africa’s Refugee Status Determination Decisions' for the Forced Migration Studies Programme, which reviewed several hundred decisions, found that in one case:

"A claimant who sought asylum on the grounds of sexual orientation, after fleeing persecution because of his homosexuality, was rejected as manifestly unfounded."

"The RSDO [Refugee Status Determination Officer] concluded: “Your claim is made on the grounds other than those on which an application for asylum may be made. The claim is based on sexually related issues [sic]."

The Road to Documentation: Asylum Seekers’ Access to Cape Town’s Refugee Reception Centre

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Audio: LGBT asylum seekers in South Africa

Source: Outspoken Radio

The South African refugee support group People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP) announced a new programme 6 May "in light of the increasing number of 'sexual refugees'." It will provide support and advocacy in partnership with LGBTI rights organisations.

"The asylum application process is fraught with problems and many LGBTI people are turned away unjustly," they say.

"Moreover, those who are granted status still often face discrimination and harassment in their new communities in South Africa. When xenophobia is compounded with homophobia, it leaves many gay and transgender people in conditions not unlike those in the countries they fled in the first place."

This interview is with a Ugandan gay refugee, Arafat, who is involved with the new programme. He says that the programme is already looking after asylum seekers from Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Congo, Zambia and Bangladesh.

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• In South Africa, immigration law revision raises barriers for asylum seekers (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

In South Africa, desperate African LGBT refugees face more challenges

Junior Mayema Nsamia (centre)

Source: Sunday Argus

By Timna Axel

It wasn't a difficult decision to leave home for Junior Mayema Nsamia – he knew he had to go when his mother nearly plunged a syringe full of petrol into him for being gay. Nsamia decided to flee his native Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but had to think carefully about his destination.

“In Congo it is not easy to travel to Europe or America. I thought, there is another country in Africa where I can live my life – it’s South Africa.” 

He arrived in Cape Town last February, one of the many sexual refugees – gays, lesbians, transsexuals and other sexual minorities – fleeing discrimination and increasingly looking to Cape Town for a chance to live free and open lives. Godfrey Magala, 23, arrived here on Monday after leaving his home in Uganda, a deeply religious nation where homosexual acts are punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Two weeks ago, the Ugandan parliament adjourned without voting on the infamous “anti-gay bill” – introduced in 2009 by MP David Bahati – that would have made homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or death.

Magala was among several masked gay activists who were detained by the police for protesting against the controversial bill outside a high court in Kampala. Although he had tried to keep his homosexuality a secret by dating a woman, using two different Facebook accounts and “acting straight”, Magala’s cousin discovered he was gay soon after he received bail.

“It spread and everyone in my family got to know about it. They were so mad at me, they asked me to move out of the house. If I had insisted on staying they would have called the police.”

Magala was also fired from his job as an administrator for an NGO run by his uncle, a pastor. “If I was in a different country, I could have gone to the authoritiesand told them that I’d been sacked from my job wrongfully. But I couldn’t do that, because being gay is illegal in Uganda.”

Magala now shares a twobedroom flat in Sea Point with four other men, all Ugandan sexual refugees. They include Alex Tuiisme, 35, who spent more than a month in a Ugandan prison on homosexuality charges, and Juma Baker, 40, who performed on stage as a woman named Shakira.

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In Mozambique, refugee deaths highlight risks to those including LGBT trying for South African sanctuary

By Paul Canning

The deaths by suffocation in a closed container truck in February of eight Ethiopians travelling through Mozambique has highlighted the little-publicized dangers that asylum-seekers trying to reach South Africa face. Also in February 50 Somali migrants and a Tanzanian captain died after a ship sank off the coast of northern Mozambique.

South Africa hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees, including, it is believed, thousands of LGBT Africans fleeing repressive societies and regimes. South Africa grants refugee status on the basis of sexual orientation. 1.5 - 3 million Zimbabweans now live in South Africa. It has the most asylum seekers in the world, 222,000 applications in 2009, with a backlog of 400,000.

The South African refugee support group People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP) announced a new programme 6 May "in light of the increasing number of 'sexual refugees'." It will provide support and advocacy in partnership with LGBTI rights organisations.

"The asylum application process is fraught with problems and many LGBTI people are turned away unjustly," PASSOP say.

"Moreover, those who are granted status still often face discrimination and harassment in their new communities in South Africa. When xenophobia is compounded with homophobia, it leaves many gay and transgender people in conditions not unlike those in the countries they fled in the first place."

In May 2008 a series of xenophobic riots left 41 African refugees dead and 21 South African citizens. More attacks followed a year later. There were allegations that the pogroms were promoted by local politicians, though both the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) have spoken out against xenophobia.

*Sipho Mvelase a gay man who is a South African citizen told SABC last year that the riots cost him his two year relationship since his ex partner, originally from Zimbabwe, left him fearing for his life.

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In South Africa, immigration law revision raises barriers for asylum seekers

Source: Irinnews

The Immigration Amendment Bill was passed by South Africa's National Assembly in March, despite arguments from opposition parties and civil society groups that it could lead to genuine asylum seekers being rendered illegal and facing up to four years in jail.

Asylum seekers currently have 14 days after entering the country to go to a refugee reception centre and make a formal application for asylum. The amended bill, which only needs approval by the National Council of Provinces to become law, reduces this period to five days.

Roni Amit, a senior researcher at the African Centre for Migration and Society at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, pointed out that even 14 days was often not enough time for people to reach a refugee centre, of which there only seven in the country.

"A lot of times, crossing the border can be very traumatic - people are often attacked or detained; it takes them a while to figure out what they need to do and where they need to go. They might also not have money for transport," she told IRIN.

Jacob van Garderen, National Director of Lawyers for Human Rights, noted that "sometimes it takes [asylum seekers] days to get through queues just to reach the front door of [a refugee centre]."

An additional amendment will require officials at border posts to make an initial assessment of whether an individual is eligible to apply for asylum. Amit said it was unclear what this pre-screening process would consist of, but it was "very problematic that it would be done by immigration officials with no training in asylum law."

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) also raised concerns about the new legislation, but spokesperson Tina Ghelli said they had taken note of assurances given by Home Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma when addressing Parliament that the pre-screening process would consist only of a criminal background check, and that no one would be penalized for failing to apply for asylum within five days if the delay was the fault of the Home Affairs Department.

South Africa gets the largest number of asylum applications in the world, with over 200,000 received in 2009 alone, according to UNHCR. A backlog of applications, estimated at 400,000 by Braam Hanekom of People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP), a Cape Town-based NGO, means that individuals often wait up to four years for a decision on their refugee status.

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South Africa delays removal of thousands of Zimbabweans

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Source: IRIN

Undocumented Zimbabwean migrants were given until 31 December 2010 to regularize their stay in South Africa, but this has been extended to 31 March, and problems with issuing passports by the Zimbabwean authorities could delay the process even further.

"There will be no deportations until the end of March," said Ricky Naidoo, spokesman for the South African Department of Home Affairs.

In September 2010 South Africa announced a moratorium on deporting Zimbabweans and said it would allow migrants until 31 December to regularize their stay by applying for work, business or study permits.

The lull in deportations will give the department time to process more than 275,000 applications for permits received from Zimbabwean migrants. "We are trying our best to complete the adjudication process in the next few weeks," Naidoo said.

The South African government relaxed its requirements as the 31 December deadline approached and now awaits a variety of outstanding documents, including passports, to process the applications.

Zimbabwean migrant rights organizations in South Africa, such as the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF), and People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP), expressed their appreciation.

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