South Africa: Civil society slams ‘poorly drafted’ White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection
Published: 5/Dec/2023
Source: Daily Maverick (South Africa)
By Tamsin Metelerkamp
Representatives of various civil society organisations criticised the White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection at a Lawyers for Human Rights roundtable on Monday, describing the draft policy as ‘vague’ and ‘poorly drafted’.
Civil society representatives have slammed the recently published White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection as being flawed and poorly drafted. Concerns have been raised about the draft policy’s alleged attempts to “scapegoat” the migrant community in the lead-up to South Africa’s 2024 general elections.
The Department of Home Affairs gazetted the white paper on 10 November, calling for a “complete overhaul” of the migration system in South Africa. The public has until 19 January 2024 to provide comments.
“While in the ordinary course of things, we would… have welcomed the good intention to administer a complete overhaul of frameworks relating to our immigration framework… we look at the white paper and we see it against the backdrop of the sociopolitical context… of the significant surge in deadly xenophobic attacks that have happened since 2008. We also see it in the context of the increasingly anti-migrant sentiment that is being purported by the ANC,” said Nabeelah Mia, head of Penal Reform Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights.