Immigration Laws: May, 2001 - Number #18

Economic conditions are deteriorating in Zimbabwe, and South Africa fears that as many as one million of the 12 million Zimbabweans may migrate south.

The South African government announced that beginning in May 2001, asylum seekers who do not have permits issued under the new refugee act will be treated as illegal immigrants. Some say the new law will create confusion because the South African home affairs office works very slowly, so that some legitimate asylum applicants may not be able to secure the permit quickly and thus face deportation. A representative of the UNHCR said that between 19,000 and 20,000 refugees were seeking asylum in South Africa; most come from other African nations.

Mali and Slavery. There are an estimated 15,000 Malian youth ages 15 to 18 who are enslaved in the Ivory Coast, lured by smugglers who promise the youth and their parents high wages and training. Instead, most do manual labor in cocoa plantations.

A slave is defined by the ILO as someone "forced to work under physical or mental threat, and where the owner or employer controls the person completely - where a person is bought or sold." According to Kevin Bales, there were about 27 million slaves in 2000, more than the 15 million slaves sent from Africa to North and South America in between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Most of Mali's 11 million residents are poor-Mali ranks seventh from the bottom on the UN's development index of 174 nations. It is relatively easy to recruit, sell, and transport children from Mali to the Ivory Coast, since the border is not well guarded. Many children are sold by their parents to strangers for $30 to $40 who promise "training." Once they leave home, the children are then resold among middlemen until they reach the cocoa plantations, where they generally work and live under guard.

According to the ILO, the best defense against the sale of children is to have local NGOs educate villagers about what really happens to their children, and to step up enforcement of laws that make recruiting and enslaving children a crime.