The South African government has published a white paper outlining the authorities' proposals to revise and simplify South Africa's laws on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection, eliminating what they consider "a relic of the colonial era", revealed the country's Home Affairs Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, at a press conference.

"The South African Citizenship Act is a relic of the colonial era and a replica of the 1949 Citizenship Act of the Union of South Africa. In practice, these pieces of legislation are not in harmony with each other," he noted.

During the apartheid era, the country granted refugee status to predominantly white citizens of some states, the Minister pointed out.

"During the apartheid era, South Africa did not adhere to any of the international or regional conventions relating to the status of refugees and asylum seekers. South Africa administered its own refugee policy on an ad hoc basis, granting refugee status mainly to white citizens of Zimbabwe, Portugal and Mozambique. [...] The preferences of whites over non-whites, the so-called non-whites or blacks, became the focus of immigration policy," he revealed.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), there are around 250,250 refugees and asylum seekers living in South Africa. To strengthen the country's asylum system, South Africa's Department of Home Affairs joined forces with the agency in January 2021 to clear the asylum backlog of approximately 153,000 cases by 2024.

The minister stressed that the government is proposing to revise or withdraw from the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its Protocol, to which South Africa acceded after the country's first democratic elections, "without the government having developed a clear policy on migration, including the protection of refugees".

The Minister explained that, as the state "has not made reservations and exceptions permitted in terms of international law", this convention and protocol do not allow South Africa to deal with a migration crisis in the country, where around 20,000 undocumented immigrants arrive every year, according to government figures.

For this reason, among the suggestions in the White Paper is the revision of the country's refugee laws, preventing the state from refusing entry, expelling or extraditing asylum seekers and refugees, Motsoaledi said.