SOUTH AFRICA: Govt says no bias against asylum seekers from Zimbabwe

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 19 Nov 2004 (IRIN) - The South African Ministry of Home Affairs has denied any bias in granting Zimbabweans political asylum, but said they lacked the manpower to deal with the number of applications.

"We have a backlog of 80,000 to 90,000 applications for political asylum from people from various nationalities; out of these, 5,000 are from Zimbabweans. All applications are being dealt with on a first come, first served basis - no country is being given preference," home affairs spokesman Mike Ramagoma told IRIN.

The church-led NGO, Solidarity Peace Trust, claimed in a report released in Johannesburg on Friday that the South African government was reluctant to grant refugee status to Zimbabweans.

"There is a clash between the policy of 'quiet diplomacy', which plays down the crisis of governance, and simultaneously acknowledging that citizens of Zimbabwe have genuine reasons to fear persecution and to run away in their thousands," noted the report, 'No War in Zimbabwe: An Account of the Exodus of a Nation's People'.

Ramagoma pointed out that only six applications from Zimbabwean asylum seekers had been rejected, while 15 had been accepted. "We are obliged, under the UN Convention [and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees], to assess the merits of each application," he said.

The Peace Trust report estimated that at least two million Zimbabweans were living in South Africa, many of them illegally. Around 45,000 Zimbabweans were deported annually at a cost of approximately Rand 720 million (US $120 million) a year, most of whom tried to return to South Africa as quickly as possible.

The Peace Trust also alleged that the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, showed a "lack of commitment to protecting Zimbabwean asylum seekers in South Africa".

UNHCR spokeswoman Melita Sunjic told IRIN, "Very few Zimbabwean asylum seekers - only about 1,500 - have approached us for assistance. We have found that very few Zimbabweans want refugee status, as they are reluctant to forfeit the right to travel to and fro between South Africa and Zimbabwe."

Bishop Kevin Dowling of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace said there was a need for a test case in South Africa to establish whether being denied food on political grounds [in Zimbabwe] would be justification for asylum.

Some human rights groups have alleged that food aid distributions by Zimbabwe's government have been based on membership of the ruling party.

Dowling called on the African Union and the Southern African Development Community to shift their stance from "solidarity with the government to solidarity with the Zimbabwean people".

Ramagoma said South Africa's department of home affairs was employing 69 more officers to determine refugee status, and was involved in a major restructuring and electronic updating exercise to improve its services.

[ENDS]