Waiting for Years and Feeling Stuck
Obtaining official refugee and asylum documents in South Africa is a constant challenge for migrants. Imagine a queue forming outside the refugee reception office before the sun rises, with some people having travelled to the office for long hours and with others who have stood in different versions of this queue for years. And many are usually turned away and asked to come back another day. This scene is the focus of a recent study by Pineteh E. Angu, published in the African Human...
Migration in Somalia: People on the Move
Somalia has long been a country in motion. Its people move within its borders, across to neighbouring countries, and along major international migration routes, driven by a mix of necessity, aspiration, and circumstance. Understanding migration in Somalia means listening to two voices at once: the migrant seeking safety or opportunity, and the communities and institutions that receive, support, or manage their movement. A Developing Migration Policy Framework Somalia has...
Research Findings Verification Workshop: Legal Frameworks for Refugees/Asylum Seekers and Children on the Move in Malawi
Malawi continues to play an essential role as a transit destination for international migrants mainly from other African countries including asylum seekers and refugees in need of protection. Children on the move including children of refugee and asylum seekers, separated and unaccompanied children also contribute to the share of people on the move in the country. The protection of asylum seekers, refugees and children especially unaccompanied and separated minors on the move remains a fundamental right...
Zimbabwe’s Migration Profile: A Journey Toward Inclusive Migration
Zimbabwe stands at an intersection of movement, where resilience and integration meet. While international headlines often focus on movements of people away from the country, a deeper and more nuanced story exists within the country’s own borders. The Atlas of African migration provides a detailed look at these ever-changing patterns, moving us beyond headlines and directly into ground data and reports. Rather than looking at migration as a challenge, the Zimbabwean government...
The Human Reality of Migration in Angola
Migration is often seen as and reviewed through the lens of policies, statistics and legal frameworks. Yet, behind every number is a real person: a family looking for safety, a child crossing the border or a local community trying to help newcomers while dealing with its own money problems. To understand migration in Angola, we need to connect what the government plans with what actually happens to people. Angola has made significant triumphs...
Necro-politics in Practice: How COVID-19 turned migrants into the “Living Dead” in South Africa (Authors: Paddington Mutekwe and Kenny Chiwarawara)
On 23 March 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a nationwide lockdown as a response to the covid-19 cases recorded in 2020 and within 18 days, infections rose to 402. The lockdown was presented as a decisive move to protect the lives of citizens. But for many migrants in South Africa the pandemic response revealed a system that quietly decides who’s lives mattered. Drawing from the study done by Mutekwe and Chiwarawara in the African Human Mobility Review