February 2021 – Press Review
National Coverage Migrants in SA fear being excluded from the Covid-19 vaccination campaign. Daily Maverick - 5 February 2021 While most South Africans are looking forward to the distribution of the vaccines, the migrant community is growing increasingly concerned about the vaccine’s availability to them. Dr Zweli Mkhize, South Africa's Minister of Health, said on the 30th of January that only South African citizens would be receive the COVID 19 vaccine during...
January 2021 - Press Review
NATIONAL COVERAGE Violent vocabularies and hypernationalism: #PutSouthAfricansFirst is misguided xenophobia Daily Maverick – 4 January 2021 Social media and the ‘real world’ are mutually constitutive realities, and the emergence of hyper-nationalist and seemingly patriotic hashtags such as #WeWantOurCountryBack are both reflective and productive of xenophobia in South...
December 2020 - Press Review
NATIONAL COVERAGE Xenophobia surges as Covid-19 slams the South African economy Bloomberg – 12 December 2020 The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a tragic toll on the South African economy, and pushed unemployment to a 17-year high. This reality triggered the emergence of widespread xenophobia, as anti-immigrant groups have staged demonstrations to demand for the mass deportation of foreigners. During a protest in Johannesburg, the chairwoman of the South Africa First party, Victoria Mamogobo, requested the deportation of...
November Press Review
National Coverage No country, no future: The bleak plight of stateless children in South Africa Daily Maverick – 29 November 2020 Undocumented children in South Africa fall into a perpetual cycle of statelessness – many children whose parents are asylum seekers become stateless when administrative duties are neglected, or under the law they are unable to register for citizenship. Stateless children are unable to access primary education, write matric...
October Press Review
NATIONAL COVERAGE Cape Town refugee crisis far from over amid government squabbles Times Live – 22 October 2020 In October 2019, refugees and asylum seekers started occupying Greenmarket Square in central Cape Town to protest against xenophobia. A year later, the crisis is far from over as neither the city nor the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is taking responsibility to find durable solutions for the protesters. Since the beginning of...
Press Review September 2020
NATIONAL COVERAGE Costly protection: Corruption in South Africa’s asylum-seeking system Lawyers for Human Rights, Scalabrini Centre & Corruption Watch – 17 September 2020 Lawyers for Human Rights, the Scalabrini Centre and Corruption Watch published a report tackling the issue of corruption in South Africa’s asylum system. Their reports, titled “Costly protection: corruption in South Africa’s asylum-seeking system”, highlights systemic governance weaknesses in South African Department of Home Affairs resulting in widespread...
