In the current context of violence and political and social upheaval, many black Africans find refuge in South Africa. However, their situation is likely to worsen given that the Department of Home Affairs is proposing South Africa’s withdrawal from major international refugee protection regimes, such as the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees.
This proposal from the department suggests that South Africa re-join international conventions with reservations and exceptions, which will have a disproportionate impact on black African refugees in the country, given that the majority of refugee communities in South Africa South are of African origin.
However, many African countries and the African Union (AU) support the idea of an economically and politically united Africa in order to foster socio-economic development and progress. One of the most powerful ways for Africa to realize its development aspirations is to implement the free movement of people or visa-free regimes across the continent.
Some African countries such as Benin, Gambia, Seychelles, Kenya and Rwanda have already introduced visa-free entry policies, setting an example for other African countries to follow. Many other African countries are expected to also abolish their visa requirements for Africans, paving the way for a unified and consolidated Africa.
The AU Agenda 2063, which aims to implement the free movement of goods and people to promote economic development, social relations, cultural exchanges, transfer of skills, trade and investment, as well as that a unified and consolidated political integration of the continent aims to overcome the political-physical borders created by colonialism.
The AU, inspired by the spirit of Pan-Africanism and the African Renaissance, imagines a united, integrated and consolidated African community, bringing together nations and ethnicities from across the continent.
The creation of an African passport in 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda, is an exemplary step in the practical realization of a unified and borderless Africa. The main objective of this passport is to enable unhindered and visa-free movement across the traditional borders of AU member countries, in line with the AU vision for the year 2063.
It appears that the free movement of Africans within the continent also implies the freedom of movement of African refugees fleeing political and social adversities in their own countries. These refugees have the right to seek refuge and residence in relatively safer countries and regions on the continent.
In other words, all AU Member States have a social obligation and moral responsibility to welcome and settle refugee communities of African origin without restriction of movement and residence across borders. policies of Africa.
Most refugee communities on the continent, including in South Africa, are made up of black Africans, and any restrictive measures affecting refugees in South Africa and elsewhere on the continent will have a disproportionate impact on them. Thus, the project to review the refugee protection policy in South Africa specifically targets black African refugees present in the country.
While South Africa is expected to be at the forefront of a borderless Africa in line with the AU’s vision, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s recent draft refugee protection policy review , is discouraging and goes against the Pan-African spirit and intentions.
Many Africans, including heads of state, researchers, academics, activists, analysts and ordinary people, are calling for the erasure and disappearance of settler-invented political boundaries and the integration of African continent through the free movement of people.
However, South Africa appears to be opposing this trend of pan-Africanism and visa-free initiatives which are gaining ground across the continent, particularly among younger African generations.
If the proposed Refugee Protection Policy Review is approved and the policy in South Africa is changed, it will represent a major blow to the AU’s progressive vision of an integrated, people-centered Africa and to the vision of the African passport, because it is black African refugees who will be most affected.
Dr Amanuel Isak Tewolde is a postdoctoral researcher at the University’s Center for Social Development in Africa