The South African asylum and refugee system is under pressure: in recent years, South Africa has become one of the top ten refugee-receiving countries, mostly from elsewhere in Africa. Quite unusually in the global south, it conducts individual refugee status determination, resulting in more than 90% refusals. The system itself is slow, and inefficient. Worsening levels of xenophobic violence and other forms of intolerance towards foreign nationals has further aggravated the already desperate plight of these people.
 
The 2017 White Paper on International Migration promises a system that is efficient, secure and respectful of human rights. Yet, at the same time, the White Paper proposes removing the right to work, conduct business and to study for asylum seekers.
 
Is the South African government committed to treating all who claim asylum with dignity and hospitality or is South Africa following trends in other parts of the world and becoming more hostile to asylum seekers? Against this backdrop, The South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights and International Law (a centre of the University of Johannesburg) invites you to a panel discussion to engage with the challenges and possible solutions to the ailments affecting the refugee and asylum regime in South Africa.
 
The panel will include an array of world-class experts in the field: Fatima Khan (Refugee Rights Unit, University of Cape Town); Ruvi Ziegler (University of Reading); Faith Munyati (Lawyers for Human Rights); Loren Landau (African Centre for Migration Studies, University of the Witwatersrand) and it will be chaired by Cristiano D’orsi (University of Johannesburg). This event is organised with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
 

Issued by The University Of Johannesburg