Forced Migration Studies Programme

This fact sheet is a quick reference guide regarding South Africa’s approach towards human trafficking. The note discusses the legal definitions of trafficking and the impact of the 2010 World Cup on the way practitioners and the public understand the concept of trafficking.
 

This fact sheet is a quick reference guide regarding South Africa’s migration management policies and a selection of key challenges facing the country with regard to population movement. The note discusses internal migration and urbanisation as well as cross border movements into South Africa.

From 11th to 26th May 2008, foreign nationals were attacked in at least 135 locations in various parts of
South Africa (Bekker, at al, 2009). This led to at least 62 deaths, over a hundred thousand people
displaced, and millions of Rands of damage and loss of property. The May 2008 violence stimulated a

This report analyses the quality of status determination decisions issued at South Africa’s permanent refugee reception offices.

This policy brief provides a summarised analysis of causal factors, police responses and solutions adopted and/or proposed in relation to this violence. For assessments of the humanitarian support provided to the displaced, see regular situation reports by UNHCR and CoRMSA.

South African policing stands at a critical juncture. The police have negotiated more than a decade of democratic change. Still, there is growing uncertainty about whether the South African Police Service (SAPS) remains capable of meeting the challenges of building an open democratic society.

Although violence against foreign nationals and other ‘outsiders’ has been a long-standing feature of post-Apartheid South Africa, the intensity and scale of the May 2008 attacks were extraordinary. What started off as an isolated incidence of anti-foreigner violence in Alexandra on 11 May, quickly spread to other townships and informal settlements across the country. After two weeks and the deployment of the Army, the violence subsided. In its wake, 62 people, including 21 South Africans, were dead; at least 670 wounded; dozens of women raped; and at least 100 000 persons displaced and property worth of millions of Rand looted, destroyed or seized by local residents and leaders.