Human rights issues concerning refugees, immigrants and exiles needed urgent discussion and action at all three levels of government, experts said on Thursday during a panel discussion at Wits University.

The discussion dealt with the Methodist Church raid as well as the country's immigration policy. The panel -- made up of participants from Lawyers for Human Rights, the City of Johannesburg, the Zimbabwe Exiles' Forum and the Human
Rights Commission -- highlighted the lack of understanding that civil servants, police and South African citizens have of the humanitarian issues involved in dealing with immigrants, refugees and exiles.

Bishop Paul Verryn of the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg said police displayed xenophobia and a lack of understanding of the issues faced by immigrants when they raided his church on January 31.

David Cote, a lawyer for human rights, said the failure of the raid was due to the lack of tools available to police to access documents or records and a lack of understanding in dealing with foreign nationals.

Thuli Mlangeni, a Johannesburg City councillor said the City of Johannesburg did not condone or overlook the issues raised by the raid. She said there had been a number of reports on xenophobic incidents.

Workshops were being set up to teach frontline offices and civil servants about foreigners' rights and how to deal with foreign nationals."Most policies involving foreigners are created at a national level but implemented at a local level. This necessitates communication throughout all three tiers of government." she said.

Mhlangeni said the department of home affairs needed to provide clarity on where it would open it's migrant reception offices, so that provincial and local government could provide clear answers to foreigners who approached them seeking asylum or refuge.

Darshan Vigneswaran, organiser of the discussion, said if an illegal immigrant approached a police officer and sought asylum, the law stipulated that the officer must facilitate his or her application for asylum or refuge.

Mhlangeni said that the city of Johannesburg needed the partnership and expertise of all interested non-governmental organisations in addressing the humanitarian issues of immigration, refuge and exile of
foreign nationals in SA.