Access to Effective Refugee Protection in South Africa: Legislative Commitment, Policy Realities, Judicial Rectifications?

The return of failed asylum seekers has become an issue of concern for asylum states who must balance immigration control measures while upholding refugee protection obligations. The 1994 transition to democracy in South Africa saw the state establish a strong urban refugee protection framework based on individualised refugee status determination processes, freedom of movement, and local integration. The refugee protection framework, although strong on paper, has suffered from a lack of implementation and has coexisted uneasily next to immigration control imperatives. This tension is further exacerbated by the post-1994 immigration regime which promotes a restrictive immigration policy with few options for low-skilled migrants who have turned to the asylum system as a means by which to legalise their stay, thus stretching capacity and conflating immigration control and refugee protection. This article provides a general overview of these issues, as well as an analysis of South Africa's policies to address failed asylum seekers. In doing so it explores the tension between formal human rights protections found in legislation and underlying immigration enforcement imperatives. The article finds that the conditions for an effective failed asylum seeker policy are not present and concludes with a discussion of some of the issues that need to be addressed to implement a more effective and rights-based policy.

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Access to effective refugee protection in South Africa : legislative commitment, policy realities, judicial rectifications?

Constitutional Court Review ◽

10.2989/ccr.2020.0004 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 65-106

Author(s):

Ruvi Ziegler

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Refugee Protection

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Expanding Rights

10.1093/oso/9780190901516.003.0009 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Alison Brysk

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Public Policy ◽

Urban Planning ◽

Sexual Violence ◽

Social Services ◽

Safe Schools ◽

Global Models ◽

Refugee Protection ◽

New Models ◽

Urban Safety

Chapter 9 turns to the gendered impact of public policy and the potential of rights-based public policy as a response to violence. First, we will chronicle the diffusion of global models of gendered public policy on urban planning, transportation, sanitation, and social services. Next, we will trace the emergence of new models of policing and social services to address family violence in Turkey, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, and El Salvador. Moving from protection to prevention, we will examine how transnational programs and coalitions for urban safety, sanitation, and transportation respond to the sexual violence tracked above in India, South Africa, Colombia, and Mexico, as well as similar problems in slum areas in Kenya. We will also consider burgeoning efforts to ensure safe schools and refugee protection.

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Who is watching? Refugee protection during a pandemic - responses from Uganda and South Africa

Comparative Migration Studies ◽

10.1186/s40878-021-00243-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Khangelani Moyo ◽

Kalyango Ronald Sebba ◽

Franzisca Zanker

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Focus Groups ◽

Asylum Seekers ◽

Emergency Relief ◽

South Africans ◽

Migrant Communities ◽

Refugee Protection ◽

Self Image ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Border Fence

AbstractBoth Uganda and South Africa were quick to respond to the global pandemic – Uganda for example imposing quarantine on foreign travellers after only a handful of cases before shutting off all international flights, and South Africa imposing one of the first lockdowns on the continent. Reflecting on the first 6 months of the pandemic responses in terms of refugee protection, the two countries have taken diverging pathways. South Africa used the pandemic to start building a border fence on the border with Zimbabwe, initially curtailed all foreign shop owners from opening under lockdown and excluded asylum seekers from emergency relief grants. In contrast, Uganda opened its borders to refugees from the DRC in June, when border closures were still the global norm. Whilst both responses are not unusual in light of their standard governance approaches, they highlight the own self-image the countries espouse – with Uganda positioning itself as the world’s premier refugee protector at a time when it is desperately in need of more funds and South Africa looking to politically capitalize internally from reiterating a division between migrant communities as a threat to poor and disenfranchised South Africans. Even during a pandemic, the practice of refugee protection does not happen in a political vacuum. This paper is based on over 50 in-person and digital interviews conducted in Uganda and South Africa in 2020, as well as nine focus groups with refugee and host communities.

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Advancing Refugee Protection in South Africa

African and Asian Studies ◽

10.1163/156921009x458172 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 341-342

Author(s):

Joseph Takougang

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Refugee Protection

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No Easy Walk: Advancing Refugee Protection in South Africa

Africa Today ◽

10.2979/aft.2001.48.3.90 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. 90-113

Author(s):

Jeff Handmaker

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Refugee Protection

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Time and Latitude in South Africa

International Astronomical Union Colloquium ◽

10.1017/s0252921100026816 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 27-38

Author(s):

J. Hers

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Cape Town ◽

Astronomical Observations ◽

Royal Observatory ◽

The Republic ◽

Astronomical Determination ◽

Limited Accuracy ◽

Better Than

In South Africa the modern outlook towards time may be said to have started in 1948. Both the two major observatories, The Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Union Observatory (now known as the Republic Observatory) in Johannesburg had, of course, been involved in the astronomical determination of time almost from their inception, and the Johannesburg Observatory has been responsible for the official time of South Africa since 1908. However the pendulum clocks then in use could not be relied on to provide an accuracy better than about 1/10 second, which was of the same order as that of the astronomical observations. It is doubtful if much use was made of even this limited accuracy outside the two observatories, and although there may – occasionally have been a demand for more accurate time, it was certainly not voiced.

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