Pretoria – South Africa has welcomed the adoption of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and applauded the commitment by states to protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants regardless of status.
“We are convinced that this Declaration marks a turning point in our history as nations in dealing with persons on the move,” said Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, on Monday.
Addressing the 67th Session of the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in Geneva, Minister Gigaba told delegates that South Africa commits herself meaningfully to contribute to the development of the framework and other commitments related to safe, orderly and regular migration.
“In line with the New York Declaration, South Africa has the greatest pleasure to announce that as early as 2005 we met the call to support early childhood education for refugee children…promote tertiary education, skills training and vocational education.
“We do this knowing very well that young people have the capacity to make considerable contributions to their communities and as future leaders, they must be empowered with skills and knowledge, as well as al-round competencies, to prepare them for their future role as the leadership of our societies and future,” he said.
The Minister told delegates that in South Africa, asylum seekers and refugees are accorded these rights immediately on applying for asylum.
“In turn, this serves as a contribution to the development of their countries of origin so that when they return home, or in any other way they pursue their future, they can contribute in the reconstruction of their countries.
“South Africa supports all efforts, in particularly regional and continental programmes that address developmental challenges,” he said.
He said states must heed the call to maintain high level of ambition to ensure collective efforts to save lives, protect rights and share responsibility on a global scale.
“We wish to reiterate the appeal to all nations to ensure that we spare no effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate the forcible movement of people both within and between nation-states.
“We must make every effort to ensure that we treat all peoples equally and regard every forcible movement of people as equally urgent,” the Minister said.
Minister Gigaba said whilst poverty and underdevelopment are widely regarded as key drivers of the displacement of people and in turn lead to armed conflict and instability, cross border destabilisation of countries must not be neglected, as people tend to follow development and stability stolen from their countries by migrating to the countries or regions they view as culprits.
“We must always strive to resolve conflicts between nation-states peacefully, through negotiations and resist the temptation to embark on cross-border, trans-national activities that would plunge nation-states into destabilisation. We must heed the call of the Agenda for Humanity and leave no one behind,” he said.
According to the Minister, Africa continues to bear the brunt of hosting vast numbers of forcibly-displaced persons, with South Africa being one of the largest single recipient of asylum seekers over time.
“Every effort should be made to comprehensively address the root causes as they also tend generally to lead to armed conflict and instability due to competition for scarce resources,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
