UNHCR Regional Bureau Commends South Africa's Handling Of Migrant Crisis

South Africa's open-door policy on migrants and refugees is commendable even though the displaced people have repeatedly complained about mistreatment in the country, Director for the UN Refugee Agency's (UNHCR) Regional Bureau for Southern Africa Valentin Tapsoba told Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th November, 2019) South Africa's open-door policy on migrants and refugees is commendable even though the displaced people have repeatedly complained about mistreatment in the country, Director for the UN Refugee Agency's (UNHCR) Regional Bureau for Southern Africa Valentin Tapsoba told Sputnik.

In late October, a sit-in demonstration was held near the UNHCR office in Cape Town with the refugees calling for relocation to other states due to a rise in xenophobic attacks on migrants in recent years. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi paid a visit to South Africa that same month and expressed confidence that the country would continue to improve conditions for the displaced people.

"I want to use this opportunity to commend the South African government and its people for having an open-door policy, for their hospitality. And they also have a progressive process for asylum seekers, management system and so forth, meaning that when refugees are coming in, seeking safety and protection, they [the South African authorities] are not fooling them, they are not sending them back," Tapsoba said, when asked what measures Grandi and the South African authorities managed to agree on during the UN high commissioner's visit.

"The government is taking this issue very seriously and I'm confident that things will improve," he stressed.

South Africa hosts more than 260,000 refugees and asylum seekers, predominantly from Somalia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In February, Lindiwe Sisulu, then-South African minister of international relations and cooperation, told Sputnik that South Africa would tackle the xenophobic attitude of its citizens toward migrants by promoting integration.