Extract
The plight of Zimbabwean unaccompanied refugee minors in South Africa: a call for comprehensive legislative action.
Since the economic and social breakdown in Zimbabwe, hundreds of thousands of people have fled the country for South Africa, including thousands of unaccompanied refugee minors. An unaccompanied refugee minor, or a "URM, " is a person under the age of eighteen who has either crossed the border alone or with another child, or who has found himself or herself living in a foreign country without an adult caregiver. Zimbabwean URMs come to South Africa in search of education, shelter, or jobs to support family back in Zimbabwe. Unaccompanied refugee minors who travel to South Africa face a myriad of challenges, including physical safety, life without a parent or guardian, legal and social discrimination, and a constant struggle to find food, shelter, education, health care, and employment. Although these children have rights under international and domestic law, political and other factors combined have denied children the protection and support to which they are legally entitled.
While South Africa has been somewhat responsive to the needs of Zimbabwean adults, it has largely ignored those of unaccompanied refugee minors. This paper shifts that focus and argues that South Africa must immediately turn its attention to the plight of the thousands of unaccompanied minors who have entered the country from Zimbabwe. Specifically, it advocates for the adoption and implementation of comprehensive and carefully tailored legislation to protect unaccompanied minors who enter the country primarily for economic and educational reasons. Enactment and enforcement of such laws would respond to the immediate crisis of Zimbabwean URMs, while providing a sustainable approach for dealing with similar refugee populations in the future. INTRODUCTION Moses Re Muleya, ** a fourteen-year-old Zimbabwean boy, lives in an overcrowded shelter in the South African border town of Musina. His father died approximately one year ago, a victim of political violence; his mother suffers from HIV. Given Zimbabwe's crippled economy, Moses' mother encouraged him to travel to South Africa to earn money to help support her and his four younger brothers. In December 2008, he and a friend boarded a train and made the 538-mile journey to the border. Since arriving, he has been forced to beg and run errands to survive. He has been unable to enroll in school, find steady work, or travel safely to Zimbabwe to visit his family, nor has he had access to a social worker to help him with these problems, something to which he is theoretically entitled to under South African law. Unfortunately, Moses' experience is not unique. In recent years, thousands of children have traveled alone from Zimbabwe to South Africa to seek a better life for themselves and their families. Currently, almost the entire unaccompanied refugee minor ("URM") population in South Africa is Zimbabwean, with approximately 1,500 URMs living in the Musina area alone] Most children came with a sibling or a friend, but about 25% traveled alone. (2) The majority are between the ages of twelve and eighteen, with the largest percentage between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. (3) Approximately 70% of the children are boys. (4) It is likely that there are a greater number of girls, but the girls tend to work as domestic laborers or sex workers and thus remain unseen. (5) Some of the girls are young mothers, coming with children of their own. (6) Unaccompanied refugee minors who travel to South Africa face a myriad of challenges, including physical safety, life without a parent or guardian, legal and social discrimination, and a constant struggle to find food, shelter, education, health care, and employment. (7) Although these children have rights under international and domestic law, political and other factors deny children like Moses the protection and support to which they are legally entitled. Some suggest that South Africa has been reluctant to move aggressively towards protecting Zimbabwean refugees because to do so might threaten the country's self-assumed role as international mediator in the Zimbabwean conflict. (8) Others explain that the South African government is concerned that increased efforts to recognize and assist Zimbabwean refugees would strain the country's already overburdened infrastructure, encourage even more migration to South Africa, and exacerbate internal tensions around the refugee situation. (9) To the extent that South Africa has responded to the refugee crisis, its focus has been on the needs of Zimbabwean adults. (10) This article shifts that focus and argues that South Africa must immediately turn its attention to the plight of the thousands of unaccompanied minors who have entered the country from Zimbabwe. Specifically, it advocates for the adoption and implementation of comprehensive and carefully tailored legislation to protect unaccompanied minors who enter the country primarily for economic and educational reasons. Enactment and enforcement ...See the full content of this document
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