{"id":14285,"date":"2017-07-14T17:58:09","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T17:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/?p=14285"},"modified":"2017-08-30T18:01:34","modified_gmt":"2017-08-30T18:01:34","slug":"south-africa-angolan-former-refugees-exempted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/fr\/south-africa-angolan-former-refugees-exempted\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa: Angolan former refugees exempted"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Farren Collins<\/span><\/p>\n

Government brought brief relief to Angolan former refugees when it granted a blanket exemption to those who qualified\u201a but would not provide reasons why it was limited to a period of four years.<\/p>\n

In a landmark decision made last month\u201a the Department of Home Affairs awarded rights equivalent to permanent residency to 1\u201a227 Angolans \u2013 many of whom have been living in South Africa for nearly two decades \u2013 after the Western Cape High Court ruled in November that the minister consider their applications to stay.<\/p>\n

Department spokesperson David Hlabane said the minster considered the \u201cspecial circumstances of each Angolan\u201d and the decision was made in line with the Immigration Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Immigration Act provides for exemption to be granted for a specified or unspecified period\u201a\u201d Hlabane said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision for four years is therefore in accordance with the act. As to what happens after four years\u201a the department will make a decision at an appropriate time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Applicants without criminal records or pending police clearance certificates were granted exemption until 2021\u201a and 72% of the 1\u201a702 who applied will now be entitled to all the rights of a South African citizen\u201a except for voting.<\/p>\n

Most of the applicants fled Angola in the late 1990s after civil war broke out and came to South Africa seeking asylum\u201a but in 2013 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees declared Angola safe and their refugee status was revoked.<\/p>\n

Government then awarded the former refugees two-year cessation permits\u201a which expired in 2015\u201a leaving those who remained in SA undocumented.<\/p>\n

The decision by government not to grant indefinite residency to the group has ensured that their future remains uncertain\u201a and has created further anxiety among many of the former refugees\u201a including 47-year-old Abrantes Brito\u201a who fears for his children\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe applied for [indefinite] permanent residency and that\u2019s what we expected\u201a not four years\u201a\u201d said the businessman\u201a who has lived in Cape Town with his wife and two children for 18 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is going to happen after that? Our children know nothing about Angola. This is their home. They see their future here and we hope they won\u2019t live their lives as refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miranda Madikane\u201a director of the Scalabrini migrant centre in Cape Town\u201a said they welcomed the decision to grant applicants rights of residency. However\u201a there was concern over the uncertainty they would face again in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese applications were based on the long stay of these applicants and their deep socioeconomic links to SA\u201a\u201d said Madikane.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not know the reason behind Home Affairs granting these applicants with permanent residency for only four years\u201a but we will engage with the department and hope to understand the reasoning behind this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

A data analysis by Scalabrini found a high rate of economic activity among the applicants. Over 90% of adult applicants are employed and nearly one in five own their own businesses. Nearly a quarter of applicants also have South African partners and children.<\/p>\n

Read on Times website: https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/2017-07-14-angolan-former-refugees-exempted\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Farren Collins Government brought brief relief to Angolan former refugees when it granted a blanket exemption to those who qualified\u201a but would not provide reasons why it was limited to a period of four years. In a landmark decision made last month\u201a the Department of Home Affairs awarded rights equivalent to permanent residency to […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[499,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classifiee","category-uncategorized","region-afrique-du-sud-2","type-articles-de-presse","item-year-631","item-theme-nationalite-et-des-refugies","item-theme-naturalisation-et-le-mariage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14286,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14285\/revisions\/14286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}