President Cyril Ramaphosa meets King Charles in whirlwind tour of UK

President Cyril Ramaphosa meets King Charles in whirlwind tour of UK

News24 | 23 Nov 2022

King Charles hosted his first state visit since becoming British monarch on Tuesday, welcoming Cyril Ramaphosa to Buckingham Palace, where the South African president invoked Nelson Mandela as he paid tribute to the close ties between the two countries.

Charles, 74, rolled out the traditional pomp and ceremony as Britain sought to bolster its relations with its biggest trading partner in Africa.

"South Africa, like the Commonwealth, has always been a part of my life. My mother often recalled her visit in 1947, the year before I was born, when, from Cape Town on her 21st birthday, she pledged her life to the service of the people of the Commonwealth," Charles said in a speech at the banquet held in the president's honour.

"It is therefore particularly moving and special that you are our guest on this, the first state visit we have hosted," he added.

Addressing lawmakers in parliament, Ramaphosa lauded the two nations' close ties, forged in the wake of a difficult legacy of colonialism and apartheid.

He later said he had discussed over lunch at Buckingham Palace "initiatives that can be embarked upon by the Commonwealth under the leadership of his majesty the king".

Ramaphosa said he would raise the idea of allowing more South African students to study in Britain when he meets Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday, and added that the restructuring of South Africa's energy market to battle power shortages could provide opportunities for British companies.

Ramaphosa said: "By pursuing these and other avenues for cooperation, I believe that we will define the relationship between South Africa and the United Kingdom in new and exciting ways."

Britain hopes the visit, which had been planned before the death of Queen Elizabeth in September, will strengthen trade and investment ties between the two nations, and show the importance of links with the Commonwealth of Nations, the international organisation that Charles now heads.

"This is a reinforcement of the strong bilateral relationship that we have with South Africa, a real opportunity to build on that close working relationship and discuss some of the issues that affect us all," British foreign minister James Cleverly told Reuters.

First state visit since 2019

Ramaphosa was officially greeted by Charles' eldest son and heir Prince William and his wife Kate at a central London hotel to mark the start of his two-day trip, the first state visit to the UK by a world leader since that of then-US president Donald Trump and his wife Melania in 2019.

The last state visit to Britain by a South African leader was made by President Jacob Zuma in 2010.

Gun salutes and a ceremonial welcome from the king and his wife Camilla, the queen consort, followed before a grand carriage procession along The Mall to Buckingham Palace, where the banquet is held.

Ramaphosa was scheduled to visit Westminster Abbey to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and see the memorial stone for former South African president Nelson Mandela.

"The late Queen had the great pleasure of hosting Presidents Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma for State Visits to the United Kingdom, at all of which I was present," Charles said, adding that she had expressed her admiration to the country.

Ramaphosa said Britain had stood with South Africa to help free Mandela and end apartheid, and he now urged Britain to support the calls of lower income countries for a reformed global institutional order and climate justice.

"Let us rekindle the moral purpose of the global fight against apartheid to confront the discrimination, inequality and injustice that divides humanity and that stifles the progress of all," he said.

www.samigration.com

About 500 refugees are still living in wretched conditions in Cape Town camp

About 500 refugees are still living in wretched conditions in Cape Town camp

Five hundred people are still living at Paint City in Bellville, without proper sanitation.

They still want to be resettled in another country, but the UNHCR says there is little prospect of it happening.

The home affairs department, which is responsible for the camp, has not replied to our questions.

Three years ago in October 2019, refugees started a protest at the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Cape Town and Pretoria. They demanded resettlement in a country other than South Africa.


After protracted protests, relocation to various camps and the Covid-19 pandemic, the UNHCR managed to reintegrate about 800 refugees back into communities and helped 70 with voluntary repatriation.

But about 500 refugees, including 200 children, remain at Paint City in Bellville. They still refuse to return to South African communities and cling to the dream of being relocated to another country.


They have been living without showers since 2020. They say there are water outages and, since the beginning of this month, they have no toilets at all.



They have resorted to makeshift bathrooms  wooden pallets placed on the ground and screened off with blankets. The men use a sandpit.


Food is prepared for the whole camp on an open fire.


Refugee leader Hafiz Mohammed said the last toilets were removed on 1 November.


There were initially 20 toilets and they were regularly serviced. These were reduced to 10 and not serviced. He said people now relieve themselves in plastic bags and dispose of it in bins.


Mohammed said that, initially, there were 20 showers, but these were removed in 2020.

Meals are prepared on an open fire for everyone. Refugees take turns making food. They say they eat once a day.

`Every week, we also experience water cuts for three days … We then go around the neighbourhood asking for water,` he said.


A Burundian asylum seeker, who delivered a baby three weeks ago, said: `Last week, I didn`t take a bath for three days, because we had no water. I am waiting for UNHCR to relocate us. I used to stay in Khayelitsha, running a restaurant. In 2019, they stole everything and burned down my container. I came here [to South Africa] 15 years ago and I am still an asylum seeker. My eldest child, 14, has never been to school. She has no birth certificate.`


Asked why the refugees persist with their demands, Mohammed told GroundUp: `UNHCR should not hide behind Home Affairs. It should come to carry its mandate to assist us to leave South Africa. Without a valid refugee status, you can`t find work, you can`t buy a house and open a bank account. We don`t want to stay in South Africa any more. We are saying enough is enough.


READ | Cape Town refugees in tents upset by eviction plans


`The only thing we want is for UNHCR to take us to a safe country, where our children can have a future. Anywhere in the world.`


Laura Padoan, spokesperson for the UNHCR, said the agency was no longer directly engaged on site, but refugees continued to access legal partners for advice on issues, such as documentation.

The women’s “bathroom” is screened off with blankets and there is a wooden pallet to stand on.

`The UN Refugee Agency is concerned for the welfare of the refugees and asylum seekers in Paint City and we are keen to see a solution to their situation as soon as possible.


`Resettlement to a third country is a very limited option for refugees worldwide, is subject to quotas offered by receiving countries, and is not offered on a group basis. UNHCR is not in a position to arrange transfers of people to other countries in the region; this would require refugees obtaining visas on an individual basis from the country they wish to travel to.


`We do not wish to see refugees, particularly the children, living in these unsanitary conditions, which is why we are urging refugees to either reintegrate into communities, or to take up the offer of voluntary repatriation [to their country of citizenship].`


The City of Cape Town referred our questions to the home affairs department, which has been responsible for the camp since its inception. Questions sent to the department a week ago have not been answered. We will add a response if and when it is received.

142 Illegal Immigrants Arrested in Pretoria Bag 3 Months Jail Term and Immediate Deportation

142 Illegal Immigrants Arrested in Pretoria Bag 3 Months Jail Term and Immediate Deportation

News Hub Creator | 18 Nov 2022

The issue of immigration is now a huge topic all over the country and this will be attributed to the awareness created so far by members of operation dudula. The group has been on the news for quite sometime over the role they are playing in making sure that illegal immigrants are hunted down and returned to their home country.

The group have worked tediously by engaging in different protest around the country in a bid to compel government to look into our porous borders and other point of entry and address the lapses found in those places.

Meanwhile, we would recall that a joint team of South Africa Police Service Officers, South African Immigration and Department of Home Affairs raided some notorious apartments in Pretoria few days ago where they successfully captured 142 illegal immigrants residing and working in South Africa.

Report reaching our desk says that the 142 illegal foreigner arrested have been served with 3 months jail sentence and are facing immediate deportation after they have served 3 months in jail.

This is coming after a raid by SAPS and Home Affairs in one of their butcheries in Pretoria.

This is commendable and we advise the government to put mechanism in place that would ensure none of these offenders re-enter into South Africa.

www.samigration.com



Home Affairs pressed for answers on issues that put migrants and refugees at risk

Home Affairs pressed for answers on issues that put migrants and refugees at risk

Daily Maverick |  18 Nov 2022

Several Members of Parliament want the Department of Home Affairs to answer questions over statelessness, migrants and refugees following a parliamentary committee meeting on Tuesday.

The Department of Home Affairs will appear before Parliament to answer questions about statelessness and assistance to refugees, as well as issues concerning DNA testing.

This follows the committee chair’s decision that they will have to respond to questions put to them by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR). This emerged on Tuesday during a meeting of Parliament’s Home Affairs oversight committee, with LHR, on migrant issues.

Lindokuhle Mdabe, head of migrant and refugee projects at LHR’s Johannesburg office, said they wanted the Home Affairs department to look at several issues affecting migrants in South Africa.

Mdabe said a new system dealing with asylum seekers was introduced earlier this year, but that LHR experiences revealed, among other issues, a lack of accessibility, lack of internet access and language barriers. There were also two-month waiting periods for interviews and a shortage of interpreters.

Mdabe said the two-month waiting periods meant refugees and migrants were rendered “vulnerable to detention because of their [lack of] documents”.

Mdabe said there was no public information available indicating the number of people arrested and detained for purposes of deportation; the number of people deported from South Africa, and the number of people arrested and charged for contravening section 49 of the Immigration Act. 

LHR wanted the Home Affairs department to make this information available, dating back three years.

Stateless persons and DNA testing 

During her presentation, Thandeka Chauke, head of the Statelessness Project at the LHR’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme, raised the issue of statelessness — where a person is not recognised as a citizen of any country.

Chauke told the committee there were about 10,000 stateless people in South Africa, including unrecognised South Africans and migrants. 

Another issue she touched on was the cost of DNA testing for birth registrations, which could lead to statelessness.

Chauke said DNA testing in SA was “arbitrary, discriminatory and exclusionary”.

She mentioned a departmental circular which stipulated that where a Home Affairs official has “reasonable suspicion” regarding the paternity of a child, proof of paternity is required — in the form of DNA tests — if one parent is not a South African citizen.

This, she said, was a form of discrimination against children born to non-South Africans. Chauke also pointed out that, at R750, the test was expensive for poor families.

The LHR recommended the department ensure birth registrations of all children born in South Africa, regardless of parents’ documentation or immigration status. Arbitrary or discriminatory barriers to birth registrations, such as expensive DNA testing, needed to be removed. 

Responding to the LHR, ANC MP Kavilan Pillay said DNA testing was not discriminatory as South African nationals also had to pay for such tests. EFF MP, Thapelo Mogale, asked the LHR what was the best way to deal with the issue of DNA testing as the pricing was “unfair to those who cannot afford it”.

Several MPs said the department needed to respond to the issues raised by the LHR.

Committee chair, Moses Chabane, said the department would need to respond at a parliamentary meeting that remained to be scheduled. 

www.samigration.com


African students face tough battle for Canada visas

African students face tough battle for Canada visas

Opera News | 18 Nov 2022

TROIS-RIVIERES, CANADA - Long viewed as a multicultural and inclusive nation, Canada admitted recently that its immigration system is tinged with racism and concern has risen over high rejection rates for African students.

"I have met people who have had their visas refused more than five times," even though they had been accepted by Canadian universities, says Serge Nouemssi, white coat and pipette in hand.

Originally from Cameroon, the 33-year-old biology student has been working on his doctorate for more than three years in a laboratory at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres (UQTR).

Surrounded by greenery, the campus located halfway between Montreal and Quebec City hosts almost 15,000 students, including the largest proportion of Africans in the province -- 65% of international students.

But "we have seen rejections of up to 80% of applicants coming from Africa," says the school's rector, Christian Blanchette, who noted it has been an ongoing problem "for several years."

In a report quietly released at the end of September, the national immigration department said it "recognizes the presence of racism in Canada and within our own organization."

According to federal data, Quebec is the Canadian province with the highest rejection rate of African students -- around 70% from French-speaking African nations between 2017 and 2021.

The data says applications from France, Britain or Germany to study in Quebec are almost always accepted -- approximately a 90% approval rate.

ÁBSURD'REFUSALS

As well as having to pay tuition ranging on average from Can$17,000 (US$12,750) to Can$19,000 per academic year to study in Quebec and rising up to Can$50,000, African students must also provide financial guarantees.

"For us Africans, generally they (immigration officials) insist on proof of financial means" to be able to afford to live and study in Canada, explains Nouemssi.

"There are cases where we have demonstrated financial resources that were close to one million dollars," explains Caroline Turcotte-Brule, an immigration lawyer. "The agent replied that our client did not have enough financial resources."

"I have the impression that it's a bit random," she adds, specifying that the reason for refusal is often the same: "a fear that the person will not return to his country of origin after" his studies.

"It's a bit of hypocrisy," said Krishna Gagne, another lawyer who notes that students have the legal right to consider staying in Canada after their studies.

Ottawa has even been encouraging foreign students to do so as it rolled out incentives in recent months in order to help deal with a labor shortage.

Sitting at her desk in a small laboratory at the end of a maze of underground corridors, Imene Fahmi says that she had to try twice before being able to come and study in Quebec.

"I encountered a lot of difficulties", explains the Algerian-born doctor, who was refused the first time because the program she'd chosen was "not related to her previous studies," even though she had been aggressively recruited by her future research director.

She had to apply a second time and wait eight months before finally getting approval.

"In regards to immigration, there doesn't seem to be an understanding of the nuances and backgrounds of certain students, so we have refusals which are a bit absurd," her research supervisor Mathieu Piche says, unable to hide his frustrations.

Refusals and delays have consequences on the students but also "on the work of the teachers," he adds.

SYSTEMATIC RACISM

The problem does not only affect students. In July, Canada faced a backlash over its denials of visas for hundreds of delegates, including Africans, that were to attend the AIDS 2022 conference in Montreal.

In its September report, the government promised better training for its immigration agents, considering creating an ombudsman post to manage disputes and review its much maligned case processing software.

Those efforts are welcomed by Turcotte-Brule, but she underscores that there has been "a problem of systemic racism for a long time" in Canada and that "it will not be resolved overnight."

www.samigration.com