59 of language impediments. Parents’ inability to speak the language limited them from actively taking part in the learning of their children. The situation of refugee education in the Czech Republic and other metropolitan countries differs slightly from South Africa.
60 Table 2.1 A Timeline of Refugee Policies in South Africa.
Year Acts/Policies
1991 Government participates with UNHCR regarding repatriation of exiles from apartheid.
1993 Basic agreement with UNHCR, first office is based and government agrees to start administrative procedures for determination of refugee status.
1995 South Africa ratifies 1969 OAU Convention governing specific aspects of refugee problems in Africa.
1996 South Africa ratifies 1951 UN Convention and the 1969 Protocol relating to the status of refugees.
1997 Refugee protection is seen separate from immigration concerns, leads to a draft green paper on international migration.
1998 Draft white paper is published, includes a draft refugee bill.
1998 Refugee Act (Act No. 130 of 1998) is adopted by parliament.
2000 Refugees Act and refugee regulations
Source: (Human Rights Commission, 2001, http://www.sahrc.org.za)
Inclusive refugee policies in South Africa can be traced to the transition to democracy between 1990 and 1994. The government entered into an agreement with the UNHCR to begin the procedures for determining refugee status in 1993. A year after the demise of apartheid, in 1995 South Africa ratified the 1969 OAU Convention. The country implemented its democratic and inclusive constitution in 1996. In the same year, South Africa ratified the 1951 UN Convention and the 1969 Protocol relating to the status of refugees. In 1998, the Refugee Act was adopted by the South African Parliament. The Refugees Act (1998) provides for the right to access health care and education services.
61 According to Section 29 of the South African Constitution (1996), every child has a right to quality education. This is inclusive of refugee children. According to the Human Rights Commission (2012, p.2):
The right to a basic education is a constitutionally protected right that is unequivocally guaranteed to all children in South Africa. It is considered a central facilitative right that is not qualified by expressions such as ‘available resources’, ‘progressive realisation’, or
‘reasonable legislative measures’ which are applicable to other socio-economic rights enshrined in the South African Constitution.
The right to education is given to all children who reside in South Africa without any condition.
However, execution of the right to basic education to refugee children in South Africa is a big challenge in reality.
2.5.1 Challenges of Accessing Education in South Africa
There is a big gap that exists between what inclusive policies in South Africa say about refugees and what children actually get on the ground. Refugee children continue to experience discrimination and exclusion from all spheres that they come into contact with citizens in South Africa, for example, in health facilities and education (CoRMSA, 2009; 2011). Many refugee and asylum seeking children in South Africa are not in school despite the constitutional provisions (Baalen, 2012). Rugunanan and Smit (2011) asserted that South Africans in general are ignorant of the rights of refugees. This is contrary to the 1996 Constitution and 1998 Refugee Act which make provisions of inclusive education for all people, including refugees and asylum seekers. According to Walton (2011):
There is ample reason for despair about the progress of inclusive education in South Africa. Despite sound and well-intentioned policies, exclusion from schools and within schools remains the experience of many children and young people in this country (p.
244).
Asylum seekers, refugees and migrant learners have problems in accessing education in South Africa (CoRMSA, 2011). They are denied access mainly because of their refugee and asylum seeking status. In some instances, refugee children cannot access education because they are unable to meet school costs. CoRMSA (2009) claims that 24% of the children of asylum seekers in the school-going age category were not in school in South Africa. The reasons for this include inability to meet school costs such as fees, transport costs, and buying textbooks and uniforms. In
62 some instances, many refugee children were out of school because of lack of documents. Some were turned away by school principals who claimed that their institutions were full (CoRMSA, 2009).
Similarly, Buckland (2011) contends that barriers to refugee children’s access to schooling in South Africa include: lack of infrastructure, parents and children’s inability to pay tuition fees, and lack of documentation which include birth certificates, immunization records and report cards from the previous school. Most refugees’ needs are usually unmet in South African schools. First preference is given to local children when enroling in schools. Refugee and asylum seeking children are marginalized and non-attendance is common among them (Livesey, 2006).
Rugunanan and Smit (2011) contend that refugees from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who were in Pretoria, South Africa, were having difficulties accessing employment and education for their children. The Burundian and Congolese children were denied access to South African government schools because of their refugee status. Children were asked by school principals to try private schools because government institutions are not allowed to take people with refugee status (Rugunanan & Smit, 2011). Some principals in South Africa think that it is illegal to admit refugee children in their schools.
Baalen (2012) reports that a woman and her son who was disabled traveled from Zimbabwe to South Africa because of fear of political persecution. They were both given refugee permits in South Africa. However, the son was not accepted in schools because of his disability and refugee status. Once school principals learn that children are refugees, they begin to be skeptical about giving them places to study in South Africa. Not all principals in South Africa are exclusive, some are inclusive. Findings of a study done by Sharghi (2000) about Congolese refugee children in South Africa reveals inclusivity. Sharghi (2000, p. 69) states that:
As far as the education of children was concerned, none of the refugee families had any problems registering their children in local schools. Four out of 6 fathers with school age children indicated satisfaction with the way that the teachers were treating their children and generally were content with the quality of education their children received.
63 Although some South African government schools are inclusive in nature, the majority are exclusive to refugee children. Some refugee parents end up taking their children to refugee facilities because government institutions will not accept them. This contrasts with the stipulation of the Refugees Act (1998), Section 27(g) which states that: “a refugee is entitled to the same basic health care services and basic primary education which the inhabitants of the Republic receive from time to time”.
2.5.2 Department of Home Affairs in South Africa
Despite the stipulations of the Act, many refugees are not in school in South Africa. According to UNHCR (2009d) it is a general trend that many refugee children are not in African schools for various reasons that include the lack of regulations that govern the admission of learners. Some children in South Africa fail to go to school because the Department of Home Affairs takes too long to process permits. Livesey (2006) argues that considering long delays of processing asylum and refugee permits at the Department of Home Affairs, many children end up not going to school because principals require permits on registration. It is not easy to obtain a refugee status in South Africa. Vigneswaran (2008) states that South African officials who work at the Department of Home Affairs often go out of their way to prevent asylum seekers from submitting their applications in order to enter the system. Asylum seekers, especially unaccompanied children, spend hours and days queuing at the Department of Home Affairs in South Africa, but they do not get served in time.
Ndlovu (2009) asserts that the Department of Home Affairs in South Africa is very inconveniencing. Staff members do not have customer care and they are very inefficient.
Foreigners who go to apply for refugee permits at the Department of Home Affairs in South Africa do not get assistance. They spend a lot of time queuing for their documents (Mwilu, 2010). This affects children because they will be unable to join schools or tertiary institutions without legal papers. It would also be very difficult for refugee children to access health care facilities in the host country without refugee permits.
64 An anonymous asylum seeker waiting for asylum outside the Pretoria Refugee Reception Office in South Africa said: “You get stepped on. You are tired, you are bored and thirsty. You feel like you are dead and not human anymore” (Vigneswaran, 2008, p. 41). People’s failure to get refugee status is causing many children to be out of school in South Africa. Nnadozie (2010) claims that refugee and asylum seeking children in South Africa spend some of their school time trying to obtain refugee permits. One learner said:
We go to Home Affairs for our permit and we end up sleeping there; we sleep outside in order to get our documents from Home Affairs. These are the problems we are experiencing with the Home Affairs. These problems affect our schooling because before we register we need identity documents (Nnadozie, 2010, p. 87).
When refugee and asylum seeking children find it hard to legalise their stay in the host country, they often are unable to go to school. Some children would resort to drug abuse and crime in order to raise money.