• I. SUMMARY
• Abuses Against Undocumented Migrants in South Africa
• Abuses Against Asylum-Seekers and Refugees
• Xenophobia and Abuse of Foreigners
• The Stalled Policy Debate
• II. RECOMMENDATIONS
• Recommendations to the Government of South Africa
• Recommendations to the State Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy
• Recommendations to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• Recommendations to the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
• III. INTRODUCTION
• Migration to South Africa Today
• Brief History of Migration to South Africa
• Labor Migration to South Africa
• The Destabilization of the Frontline States by the Apartheid Regime
• The Repatriation of Mozambican Refugees
• The SADC Amnesty
• IV. THE TREATMENT OF UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS
  IN SOUTH AFRICA
• Labor Exploitation
• Abuses During the Arrest Process
• The Agencies Involved in the Detection of Undocumented Migrants
• Abuses Committed During Detection and Arrest
• Arbitrary Identification Procedures
• The Destruction of Documents
• Bribery, Extortion and Theft During the Arrest Process
• Physical Abuse During the Arrest Process
• Threats to Academic and Journalistic Freedom
• Conditions of Detention
• Lindela Facility
• The Intake and Processing of Detainees
• Accommodation
• Food
• Telephone Access
• Abuse of Inmates by Guards
• Prison Facilities
• Pretoria Central Prison
• Johannesburg (Diepkloof) Prison
• Pollsmoor Prison
• Police Cells
• Military Detention
• Unlawful Long-term Detention of Undocumented Migrants
• The Deportation Process: The Train to Mozambique
• V. THE TREATMENT OF REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS
  IN SOUTH AFRICA
• Asylum-Seekers in Detention
• Corruption in the Asylum Process
• Arbitrary, Uninformed Decisions
• Rubber-Stamp Appeals Process
• Police Abuse of Refugees and Asylum-Seekers
• VI. XENOPHOBIA AND ATTACKS AGAINST MIGRANTS
• Xenophobic Statements by Officials
• Attacks Against Foreign Hawkers
• The Alexandra Riots against Foreigners
• VII. THE STALLED POLICY DEBATE
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• APPENDIX A: SOUTH AFRICA'S OBLIGATIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC LAW
• APPENDIX B: ORGANIZATION OF AFRICAN UNITY CONVENTION GOVERNING THE SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF REFUGEE PROBLEMS IN AFRICA
• APPENDIX C: DECLARATION ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE NOT NATIONALS OF THE COUNTRY IN WHICH THEY LIVE
• APPENDIX D:INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON THE PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF ALL MIGRANT WORKERS AND MEMBERS OF THEIR FAMILIES

Although South Africa, since the first democratic elections in 1994, has made remarkable progress towards establishing a free and democratic society based on respect for the human rights of its own citizens, foreigners have largely failed to benefit from these developments and remain subject to serious abuse. Anti-foreigner feelings have also increased alarmingly. Politicians, the press, and the South African public commonly blame foreigners for exacerbating social problems such as rising crime, unemployment, or even the spread of diseases, and undocumented migrants have been subject to abuse by officials from the Department of Home Affairs, the police, and the army, as well as by the general public. In general, public attention has been focused on the allegedly socio-economic impact of migrants within South Africa, despite the absence of evidence to confirm these. In the process, attention has been diverted from the suffering and exploitation experienced by aliens as a result of official policies and xenophobic attitudes. This report seeks to document the experiences of foreigners in South Africa, including undocumented migrants, legal residents, asylum-seekers, and refugees, in order to add their voices to the debate on migration in South Africa. Human suffering should not be ignored in a country that only recently emerged from a system that degraded basic human rights and human dignity.⁽¹⁾

Human Rights Watch conducted an investigation of the treatment of undocumented migrants, asylum-seekers, and refugees in South Africa in 1996 and 1997. During the course of our missions, we visited several areas of the country, including Johannesburg and Pretoria, the Northern Province and Mpumalanga border regions with Mozambique, and Cape Town. We interviewed foreign farm workers, migrants in detention, asylum-seekers, refugees, hawkers, repatriated Mozambicans, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), as well as officials from the Department of Home Affairs, the South African Police Service, the Department of Correctional Services, the South African National Defence Force, and the Mozambican Department of Labor. We visited a number of detention facilities, including the private Lindela detention facility in Krugersdorp; Pollsmoor, Pretoria Central, Johannesburg Central (Diepkloof), and Modderbee prisons; and a number of police stations. Our findings indicate pervasive and widespread abuse of migrants in South Africa.

Abuses Against Undocumented Migrants in South Africa

The South African economy, especially its farming, mining, security, and construction sectors, relies heavily on the cheap and easily exploitable labor of undocumented migrants, mostly from Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland. Undocumented laborers on farms work for a pittance, on average about 5 rands [U.S. $ 1 at an exchange rate of five rands for one U.S. dollar] per day. Because of the illegal immigration status of their workers, farmers can exercise tremendous power over them. Human Rights Watch interviewed a number of child laborers, some as young as fourteen, and our research indicates that physical abuse of farm workers is common. Police rarely investigate or prosecute farmers for abuses, and in some instances contribute to the exploitation of farm workers by deporting them without pay on the request of farmers who have employed them. In one instance, Human Rights Watch interviewed three young farm laborers who described how they had been kept on a white-owned farm against their will, without any accommodation, and were regularly beaten to make them work harder. After two weeks, they were finally paid at the rate of 5 rand [U.S. $1] per day, only to have their money stolen by the foreman who then called the police to have the young laborers deported.

South Africa has been deporting an increasing number of migrants each year since 1994, and reaching close to 200,000 people in 1997. Suspected undocumented migrants are identified by the authorities through unreliable means such as complexion, accent, or inoculation marks. We documented cases of persons who claimed they were arrested for being "too black," having a foreign name, or in one case, walking "like a Mozambican." Many of those arrested--up to twenty percent of the total in some areas by our calculation--are actually South African citizens or lawful residents, who often have to spend several days in detention while attempting to convince officials of their legitimate status.

Assault and theft by officials during the arrest process seems disturbingly common. We interviewed several persons who claimed to have been beaten and robbed of valuables by members of the army or police and obtained evidence of several other such cases. In some urban areas, especially Johannesburg, police often suggested a "fine" or a bribe as an alternative to arrest and deportation. One person told Human Rights Watch how the police had volunteered to drive him to a bank automated teller machine (ATM) to withdraw the money for a bribe, while two others told us how they were forced to pay for a beer drinking party and to give the arresting officers additional "beer money" before being released.

After arrest, suspected undocumented migrants are brought to a place of detention where they often wait for long periods before being deported. Human Rights Watch interviewed some people who had been unlawfully in detention for more than four months and documented a case in which a suspected undocumented migrant had been detained for more than a year. Migrants awaiting deportation are held at a private detention facility called Lindela, as well as at prisons, police stations, and army bases. Conditions of detention are usually far below internationally accepted minimum standards. Places of detention are often severely overcrowded, meals are insufficient, bedding was dirty and vermin-ridden, and detainees did not always have regular access to washing facilities. At Pollsmoor prison, migrants in detention often share cells with criminal suspects and are frequently robbed of their possessions and clothes by these criminal suspects.

At the private Lindela facility near Johannesburg, operated on behalf of the Department of Home Affairs by the Dyambu Trust, Human Rights Watch found numerous serious human rights abuses. Most troubling, we interviewed and photographed more than ten people who claimed to have been beaten by security personnel in three separate incidents in the week prior to our visit, and we obtained medical reports documenting their injuries. A young man from Lesotho had been brutally beaten over a period of several hours after complaining to security guards about the theft of his music tapes by security personnel. Although the Lindela management was aware of some of these incidents, no internal investigation appeared to have been instituted prior to our request for an investigation. The number of beds at Lindela was significantly lower than the average number of persons detained at the facility. Detainees also described many instances of corruption involving officials of the Department of Home Affairs at the facility and complained to Human Rights Watch about the quality of the food, the lack of phone access, and rude and violent behavior by the guards.

Repatriation to their home country is the final chapter in the journey of most arrested undocumented migrants. In some areas, deportees were not allowed to gather their often substantial belongings before being deported, thus virtually guaranteeing that they would return again to South Africa. Several people told Human Rights Watch about their experiences on the twelve-hour train ride to Mozambique, where they were verbally and physically abused by police guards, and where a substantial bribe often provided a final opportunity to escape deportation by being allowed to jump from the moving train.

Abuses Against Asylum-Seekers and Refugees

South Africa only began to abide formally by international refugee law after signing a Basic Agreement with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1993. South Africa became a party to the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and United Nations (U.N.) refugee conventions in 1995 and 1996, respectively. The treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers in South Africa does not fully comply with international refugee law. There is no legislation implementing the South African government's obligations under these documents, so all refugee-handling procedures are governed by internal regulations of the Department of Home Affairs, leaving ample room for confusion and abuse of process. Human Rights Watch interviewed several asylum-seekers who had been in detention for up to three weeks at police stations, waiting for officials from the Department of Home Affairs to interview them. We discovered extensive corruption in the refugee determination process, with Home Affairs officials demanding bribes for the scheduling of interviews and for the granting of permits.

In addition to the impact of pervasive bribery and extortion, the refugee determination process is flawed in several respects. First, officials often make arbitrary, uninformed decisions that are inconsistent with the requirements of the U.N. and OAU conventions and guidelines for their implementation. Asylum-seekers from a number of African countries, including Angola, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Malawi, appear to have their asylum applications turned down as a matter of course. Refugee applications are determined by a panel which does not itself hear the applicants. Until recently, applicants denied asylum were not furnished with reasons for the denial, a practice which has now been rectified. Denied asylum-seekers can only appeal to a one-person appeal board which appears not to provide a genuine review of the case.

Xenophobia and Abuse of Foreigners

In general, South Africa's public culture has become increasingly xenophobic, and politicians often make unsubstantiated and inflammatory statements that the "deluge" of migrants is responsible for the current crime wave, rising unemployment, or even the spread of diseases. As the unfounded perception that migrants are responsible for a variety of social ills grows, migrants have increasingly become the target of abuse at the hands of South African citizens, as well as members of the police, the army, and the Department of Home Affairs. Refugees and asylum-seekers with distinctive features from far-away countries are especially targeted for abuse.

Human Rights Watch interviewed a number of refugees and asylum-seekers who claimed to have been assaulted by police. In one case, a Ugandan refugee told us how she had been arrested and violently thrown into a police van, then subjected to vile language and rough handling as she was transferred from one police station in Cape Town to the other. A Nigerian refugee hawker in Cape Town showed us his wounds from a recent scuffle with the police, in which he was manhandled and verbally abused for insisting that a police officer who had asked him for his papers identify himself first.

At least one asylum-seeker, Jean-Pierre Kanyangwa of Burundi, has died after apparently being beaten in police custody. Kanyangwa was arrested by police in Cape Town at about 11 a.m. on June 2, 1997, and was brought to the Department of Home Affairs at about 2 p.m. the same day in a bad condition. He was suffering from stomach pains, had urinated in his pants, and reportedly told a fellow Burundian that he had been beaten by the police. The police sergeant who brought Kanyangwa to the offices of the Department of Home Affairs refused to take him to the hospital, saying it was now a refugee problem, and left. Kanyangwa died from a ruptured spleen on his way to the hospital. A murder docket into the case has been opened.

Foreign hawkers, often asylum applicants with temporary residence permits, have repeatedly been the targets of violent protests and other forms of intimidation as local hawkers attempt to "clean the street of foreigners." During repeated violent protests in Johannesburg, South African traders and ordinary criminals have brutally beaten foreign hawkers, and stolen their goods. Hawkers interviewed by Human Rights Watch who were the targets of such abuse universally complained to us that the police had done little or nothing in response to their complaints. In many areas around Johannesburg, such as Kempton Park and Germiston, foreign hawkers have had to abandon their trade after repeated attacks and looting incidents in which the police failed in their duty under both international and domestic law to protect all persons. Human Rights Watch interviewed members of a large community of Somali asylum-seekers who had been forced to abandon their trade and who told Human Rights Watch that they now never left their overcrowded and impoverished compound unless they were in a large group, in order to protect themselves from attacks by hostile "locals."

A xenophobic climate in South Africa has resulted in increased harassment of migrants. Many people interviewed by Human Rights Watch described how they had been verbally abused by South Africans, and told to "go home." In some cases, verbal abuse led to physical attacks. In the township of Alexandra near Johannesburg, for example, Malawian, Zimbabwean and Mozambican immigrants were physically assaulted over a period of several weeks in January 1995, as armed gangs identified suspected undocumented migrants and marched them to the police station in an attempt to "clean" the township of foreigners. Similar but less extensive incidents continue to occur regularly in South Africa, and foreigners have received little protection from the police and other institutions.

The Stalled Policy Debate

The Aliens Control Act which currently governs all aspects of migrants control in South Africa is an archaic piece of apartheid legislation, at odds with internationally accepted human rights norms and the South African constitution. South Africa still remains without legislation specifically covering refugee determination procedures. In order to remedy these deficiencies, the government appointed a task group to draft a "Green Paper" policy document as a first step in drafting new legislation.

Many of the recommendations contained in the ensuing Green Paper on International Migration, finalized in May 1997, would help remedy the institutional and legislative deficiencies which are partly responsible for the human rights abuses discussed in this report. However, it appears that the reform process has stalled, and with the 1999 general elections appearing on the political horizon in South Africa, the window for migration and refugee legislative reform is rapidly closing. Without legislative reform, it will be difficult to address the problems and abuses existing under the current system, as many of these problems and abuses stem from fundamental deficiencies in the current legislation. In the meantime, without reform, Human Rights Watch fears that foreigners in South Africa will continue to suffer major and systematic human rights abuses.

Recommendations to the Government of South Africa

Human Rights Watch makes the following recommendations to the South African government, to be implemented by all agencies involved in migration policy and its enforcement. In all its policy initiatives and official statements, the government should make it clear that all individuals in South Africa, regardless of their immigration status, are entitled to respect for their basic human rights. The government should take steps to ensure that all agencies involved in migration control in South Africa emphasize the promotion and protection of human rights in the fulfillment of their responsibilities to enforce South African immigration laws.

General

• The government should immediately take steps to bring South African immigration law into line with internationally recognized human rights norms and the South African constitution, in accordance with the recommendations contained in the Draft Green Paper on International Migration.
  
• Members of the government, including ministers, should publicly condemn harassment of or attacks on foreigners, and call for tolerance, understanding and respect for the human rights of all those living in South Africa.
  
• South Africa should ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its protocols, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and bring domestic law and practice into conformity with these treaties.
  
• South Africa should sign and ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and bring domestic law and practice into conformity with this treaty.
  
• South Africa should sign and ratify the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention concerning Migration for Employment (Revised 1949, No. 97), and the ILO Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention (1975, No. 143), and bring domestic law and practice into conformity with these treaties.
  
• All efforts should be made to prevent practices of racial discrimination in the application of migration and refugee policy.

Refugee Protection

• The government should develop an independent process for refugee status determination. As proposed by the Green Paper on International Migration, refugee status determination should be the domain of an impartial and independent expert authority with a sound familiarity with the legal and empirical realities of human rights protection, insulated from political intervention.
  
• Refugee legislation should provide in detail not only for the procedures for determining refugee status, but also for the substantive rights of refugees and asylum-seekers. The central purpose of such legislation should be to grant international protection to those who need it. Both procedural and substantive provisions of refugee legislation should be based on the U.N. and OAU refugee conventions and other international instruments as a minimum framework.
  
• Refugee legislation should provide for determination of refugee status in accordance with the guidelines contained in the UNHCR Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status, on the basis of a hearing at which the applicant is given an opportunity to make his or her case directly to the person or persons who will make the first instance decision whether or not to grant refugee status. In the event of rejection, reasons must be given and a reasonable period to prepare and file an appeal must be granted. Appeals should be heard by a properly constituted body, with independent status. The right to an interpreter, to submit documents in any language, to use legal representation and to present a case in person should all be specified.
  
• Refugees in South Africa should have the right to identity and travel documents indicating their status; asylum seekers should also be given documentation indicating that an asylum application has been filed and that the holder may remain in the country pending determination of the application.
  
• Refugee legislation should provide explicitly for the protection of unaccompanied minors, and should aim to respect as far as possible the principle of family unity in line with the recommendation of the Final Act of the conference that adopted the 1951 U.N. Convention, and should guarantee other rights provided in international human rights and refugee law and in South Africa's constitution.
  
• South Africa should recognize the especially vulnerable position of women by explicitly including gender-based persecution, including sex-specific abuse, as grounds for granting asylum, and should adopt guidelines to assist asylum adjudicators to evaluate gender-related persecution.
  
• Legislation should provide that asylum-seekers should in general not be detained, but if they are, detention should be only on the basis of the grounds contained in the UNHCR Guidelines on the Detention of Asylum Seekers. Detention of asylum-seekers should be subject to judicial approval and supervision. Detained asylum seekers should have the right to contact a legal representative and a family member or friend, and to be informed of that right and given the means to make such contact.
  
• In accordance with the 1951 U.N. Convention, the assimilation and naturalization of refugees should be facilitated. Those who have been settled in South Africa for a long time--including, for example, the Mozambicans in South Africa recognized as refugees on a group basis until December 31, 1996--should in particular be eligible for permanent residence status where possible.

Preventing Abuse by Government Officials

• The law should provide clear protections against arbitrary arrests, searches and seizures in the apprehension of undocumented migrants, including procedures to be followed by police and immigration officers: for example, rules should be drafted to determine when an individual may be stopped and asked for his or her identity documents and to ensure that individuals who do not have documentation with them are given an effective opportunity to produce it.
  
• The government should take immediate steps to end the pervasive corruption in the handling of undocumented migrants, asylum-seekers, and refugees by the Department of Home Affairs, South African Police Service, South African National Defence Force, and other agencies.
  
• Senior officials in each agency responsible for implementing migration policy should make it clear that abuse of undocumented migrants, asylum seekers and refugees is inconsistent with South African and international law and will not be tolerated. All allegations of abuse by government officials should be investigated thoroughly, and the responsible officers should be brought to justice.
  
• All uniformed police officers should be required to wear clearly visible and readable identification badges which state their name and an identification number. Officers requesting documents or detaining persons should be required to identify themselves by name, rank, and identification number when asked to do so.
  
• Persons being repatriated should be allowed to retrieve their belongings in South Africa prior to repatriation. All efforts should be made to facilitate and ensure that persons being repatriated are able to return to their home countries with their possessions.
  
• The border fence between South Africa and Mozambique should no longer be electrified, in light of the continuing reports of electricity-related injuries at the border fence.
  
• Effective procedures should be established where they do not already exist, and publicized, to enable refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants, as well as South African citizens and residents, to file complaints, without fear of retaliation, against officials of the Department of Home Affairs, the South African Police Service, the South African National Defence Force, and all other agencies involved in migration control. Such complaint procedures should take into account the need for rapid determination of complaints if individuals are in the process of deportation, while also providing for an independent review of the process.

Detention of Suspected Undocumented Migrants

• All efforts should be made to minimize the period undocumented migrants and asylum-seekers spend in detention. In accordance with the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, undocumented migrants who are apprehended and held in custody must have "an effective opportunity" to have their case reviewed "promptly" by a judicial or other authority. Continued detention should be on the basis of specified conditions, and should be subject to periodic review and to a maximum time limit. The current practices, allowing for the judicially unsupervised detention of undocumented migrants for an initial period of thirty days, are inconsistent with international human rights standards and the provisions of the South African constitution.
  
• Detention conditions for undocumented migrants and asylum-seekers should conform with international and domestic standards, including the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and the Body of Principles. In particular, undocumented migrants in detention and asylum-seekers are entitled to clean and adequate bedding, prompt access to medical treatment, adequate washing facilities, three meals a day at regular intervals, and, at a minimum, one hour of exercise per day.
  
• Those who are held in custody simply pending deportation should be held in separate places of custody from criminal suspects or convicts. All efforts should be made to hold undocumented migrants in dedicated detention facilities, offering material conditions and a regime appropriate to their legal situation and staffed by suitably-qualified personnel.

• Conditions in places of custody for deportees, whether in dedicated facilities, police cells, prisons or elsewhere, should be subject to inspection by an independent authority. Independent non-governmental organizations should also be allowed to inspect these facilities in order to ensure compliance with international and domestic standards.
  
• Detainees who are foreigners should have the right to obtain their own legal representation, to contact a family member or friend, and to a state-provided interpreter in official interviews or hearings by state officials, and to be informed of these rights and given the means to make contact with a family member or friend.
  
• Where undocumented migrants are held in places of custody operated by private bodies, such as the Lindela facility operated by Dyambu Trust, the government must ensure that such facilities are operated in accordance with international and domestic law. Delegation of the task of operating such facilities does not absolve government of ultimate responsibility for the acts done on its behalf, and procedures should be in place to ensure close government oversight.
  
• In particular, clear rules of conduct and disciplinary rules for security guards at private facilities should be instituted, and all guards should be trained in appropriate disciplinary procedures and rules applying to the use of force. Any incidents involving the use of force by guards should be fully investigated and reported to the Department of Home Affairs and, where appropriate, the South African Police Service. The failure by security guards to report incidents involving the use of force should be an infraction subject to disciplinary proceedings.
  
• The government should ensure that information is made available to undocumented migrants in custody setting out in clear and simple language their rights and the available avenues for redress if any of these rights are violated. This information should be translated into several languages commonly spoken by undocumented migrants, such as Shangaan, Shona, French and Portuguese, and should be prominently displayed at offices of the Department of Home Affairs, police stations, army offices, offices of the Internal Tracing Units, and all facilities used for the detention of undocumented migrants. In addition, contact information of organizations that can provide legal and other assistance should be displayed.
  
• In order to prevent arbitrary expulsions, procedures should be put in place which allow migrants to appeal deportation orders. These appeal procedures should be easily accessible and should not significantly extend the period of time spent in detention. Migrants who have been issued with a deportation order should be informed of their right to appeal, and information explaining appeal procedures in clear and simple language should be easily available in several languages commonly spoken by undocumented migrants, such as Shangaan, Shona, French and Portuguese.

Protection of Foreigners from Violence

• The police, army and other security forces should develop and adopt specific policies for the protection of foreigners from violent attacks from whatever source, recognizing undocumented migrants as a particularly vulnerable group.
  
• The police should investigate all incidents of assault or other offenses committed against foreigners. All persons are entitled to the protection of the police services on an equal basis, regardless of nationality.

Preventing Exploitation of Migrant Labor

• Integrated policies by different state authorities should be developed and implemented to end the abuse of undocumented migrants and use of coercive labor practices by employers: in particular, the immediate investigation of such allegations and the prosecution of employers who engage in such practices. All reasonable steps should be taken to ensure that employees are paid for work performed prior to their deportation.

Education and Training

• Public officials interacting with refugees and undocumented migrants, including immigration officials and police with responsibilities in this area, should receive specific training relating to the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, and the human rights of all persons.
  
• Public education campaigns should be devised and implemented directed at reducing xenophobia and increasing tolerance and respect for the human rights of asylum seekers, refugees and migrants generally.

Recommendations to the State Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy

• The Human Rights Commission, the Commission for Gender Equality, and the Youth Commission should monitor the situation of undocumented migrants, asylum seekers and refugees as especially vulnerable groups in South African society and should conduct campaigns to inform and educate the South African public about the rights of foreigners.
  
• The Independent Complaints Directorate, responsible for investigation of complaints against the police, should pay special attention to complaints of police abuse against foreigners, and should take note of the particular vulnerability of those with irregular immigration status in investigating such allegations of abuse.

Recommendations to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

• UNHCR should continue to work closely with the South African government and concerned NGOs to ensure that respect for human rights is an integral part of the new refugee policy currently being developed and that the 1951 U.N. Convention and the 1969 OAU Convention are fully implemented.
  
• UNHCR should continue to monitor, investigate, document, and make public any abuses committed against asylum seekers, refugees, and other migrants residing inside South Africa.
  
• UNHCR should do all in its powers to facilitate access to asylum seeking procedures, including, where necessary, the development of sub-offices in key locations such as Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban.
  
• UNHCR should all in its powers to ensure that asylum-seekers and refugees are given full documentation.

Recommendations to the Southern African Development Community (SADC)

• SADC should seek regional solutions to the problem of undocumented border crossings in the region, and encourage cooperation among member states in the area of migration policy.
  
• SADC should also address the issue of refugee accommodation on a regional basis, and encourage burden sharing among member states in the area of refugee accommodation.
  
• SADC should establish a permanent committee to monitor the treatment of undocumented persons, refugees, and asylum-seekers in the SADC member states, and make the treatment of migrants by member states a standing issue on the Community's agenda.

1. In this report, we use the term "undocumented migrants" to refer to all persons who entered South Africa without passing through formal border control procedures. The South African authorities normally refer to such people as "illegal aliens," a term Human Rights Watch considers objectionable because of the way it dehumanizes those with irregular immigration status.