The
Country Director for JRS in South
Africa, Fr David Holdcroft SJ, says that
migration is part of the human condition and that people's mindset needs to
change so that the rights of refugees can be acknowledged and entrenched.
'Where the 20th century was known for freeing up its constraints on money, I
hope the 21st century will be known for its freeing up of constraints on the
movement of people.'
During
a recent visit to Sydney David said that South Africa, which currently
accommodates 320,000 refugees, is proof that a society can absorb large numbers
of people, and that this can be used as a means for developing and stabilising
the countries from which they come.
'There's
enough research out there that suggests that it's of economic benefit, that
it's something that needs to be managed. And I think there are signs that
Australia is trying to do that.'
David,
who was formerly the Director of JRS Australia, says he has faced a different
set of challenges in his new job. 'The sheer weight of numbers is a huge
challenge. Our office at Mahkado in Limpopo province saw 15,000 people last
year. The offices in Pretoria and Johannesburg assessed 5,000 to 6,000 people each.
This included following them up, monitoring them, and so on.'
JRS
has seen children as young as seven turning up at its Limpopo office. 'They
would have walked for 200 kilometres. They're sent by their families to get
money to send back to them. They're vulnerable to all sorts of things-many have
been robbed or assaulted in the process of coming down from Zimbabwe.'
Once
refugees have made it to a major city like Johannesburg, they struggle to find
emergency accommodation-a problem which is expected to worsen in the run-up to
the South African-hosted Soccer World Cup. 'A lot of the emergency
accommodation places won't even take asylum seekers. We try to come up with
creative solutions where refugees will rent a room in a family house at a cheap
rate.'
JRS
also has a struggle on its hands trying to convince the local population of the
value of migrants. 'There's a real challenge in winning over the hearts and
minds of South Africans. We're working in a fairly hostile environment.
Refugees tend to be better educated than the poorest South Africans-they're
twice as likely to end up in jobs, twice as likely to be employing others after
a couple of years. So when South Africans see us giving things to refugees,
there's a natural resentment.'
Although
South Africa
is often regarded as a developed nation, David says that it's difficult to
obtain funding for refugee projects in the country. 'We need to get that
message out there. People equate South Africa with the First World, and they
don't realise that half the population is living below the poverty line. That's
25 million people who are very needy.'
JRS
hopes to implement a solution where refugees will be helped on condition that
they also employ South Africans. ‘But it's a long-term plan because there's a
lot of resistance.'
David
laments the fact that the sheer number of refugees in South Africa prevents JRS
staff from developing enriching relationships with the people they serve. 'Just
being able to do that, and do it properly, and to do it in a way where you can
form relationships with refugees, is an enormous challenge.'
For more on Jesuit Refugee Service, go to www.jrs.org.au.
By Catherine Marshall