Govt asked to do more to ease refugees' plight

The lack of job opportunities, access to education, and proper identification documents are among the key problems facing refugees in South Africa, according to a new report. The "National Refugee Baseline Survey", launched last week by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, said asylum seekers and refugees required assistance in three priority areas: employment opportunities, identity documentation and access to education for their children, while food, shelter and housing were raised as other problem areas requiring urgent attention. Fedde Jan Groot of UNHCR in South Africa pointed out that "the survey also shows refugees being refused emergency health care; refugees finding the doors of primary schools closed to their children; refugees not being able to find appropriate employment because they don't have ID papers. We were intrigued by the fact that refugees seemed to be surviving, in spite of the many problems which continued to make the lives of many miserable and undignified." The main objective of the study, carried out between August 2002 and August 2003 among 1,500 asylum seekers and refugees in the four major cities of South Africa: Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban, was to provide empirical data that would allow government departments to develop an integrated policy on service provision and assistance. One-third of participants indicated they had been employed in their country of origin before coming to South Africa; the majority said they were currently holding jobs of lesser status and pay compared to the position they had previously held; and "52 percent of applicants are engaged in unskilled occupations such as selling goods on the street, or engaged in piece jobs as car watch or car wash". Despite the South African government's emphasis on favouring the immigration of skilled people, it was not utilising the talent of a large proportion of refugees who had skills, but were not allowed to exercise them due to the difficulty of obtaining identity documents, the study commented. It hoped that making available the information gained from the survey would assist the various government departments in preparing to include refugees among their beneficiary groups. The study recommends "that the South African government should recognise the valuable contributions that the majority of asylum seekers and refugees can make to the South African economy, and refrain from assuming that the refugees are unskilled people or people who come to South Africa in search of better working opportunities". The departments of health, home affairs and education, and other refugee service organisations were called upon to recognise international law and the country's constitutional obligations to asylum seekers and refugees in South Africa, and facilitate the provision of basic services. Up to 16 percent of the children of asylum seekers and refugees had no access to primary school education and 39 percent were not attending high school because their unemployed parents could not afford the school fees. A significant two-thirds of respondents were not aware of their right to ask public schools to waive fees in these circumstances, the survey found. Participants said they had limited access to emergency medical assistance and reproductive health care facilities - one-fifth were refused emergency medical care by hospital administrative staff, who cited inadequacy of status documents. Forty-four percent of refugees and asylum seekers lived on one meal per day, while 14 percent revealed that they were receiving regular food assistance from civil society groups such as Jesuit Refugee Services and the South African Council of Churches. Obtaining asylum and refugee permits from the South African authorities was difficult, due to requests for payments by brokers, interpreters and Department of Home Affairs officials at different stages of the procedure, the report noted. The lack of proper status and identity documents limited access to employment and basic social services such as health care and financial facilities. Fedde Jan Groot highlighted that measures were needed to ensure that the rights of refugees on paper, as stated in the constitution and the Refugees Act, were in fact realised in practice.