UNHCR Reports that South Africa is Favored Country for Asylum Seekers

According to this morning’s SA The Sunday Times, “one quarter of all asylum requests in the world are being filed in South Africa, with hundreds of thousands of desperate Africans taking advantage of the country’s liberal refugee policy.”

This week’s announcement that the deportation of illegal Zimbabweans could resume early next year will likely complicate matters, causing the number of asylum applications to rise, and straining South Africa’s immigration system.

In the coming weeks I will be meeting with various groups and organizations working on refugee/migrant rights to explore the reasons why South Africa has become one of the top refugee/asylee destinations. I will also explore the ways legal and social services are striving to meet these challenges, respond to the various xenophobic attacks, and how the country and its people are coming to terms with the influx of refugees. As a refugee myself from the Bosnian conflict, I will depend on Kay to bring her objective perspective and keep our project grounded in solid storytelling.

Stay with us. I’ll keep you posted!

Here is the link to the full story in The Sunday Times