Immigration Laws: September, 1997 - Number #23

South Africa. South Africa reported that it was removing 1,400 illegal aliens each week in July 1997, or 82,000 in the first six months of 1997, and that the number might double. Of those removed in 1997, about 84 percent were from Mozambique and 11 percent were from Zimbabwe. In 1997, the South African National Defense Force spent R700 million on border protection and the Department of Home Affairs spent R7.5 million on repatriation.

Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi asserted that, if the 2.5 to four million illegal aliens in South Africa were removed, unemployment would decrease. A recent poll found that 79 percent of South Africans believe that the presence of illegal aliens is the major reason for high unemployment. Buthelezi called for stiffer employer sanctions.

On August 14, 1997, Johannesburg police broke up a protest by South African young men, many street vendors, against foreign street vendors from Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Thousands of rand of goods belonging to refugees and asylum seekers selling wares on the streets were stolen or destroyed by members of the South African Hawkers' Association and other unemployed South Africans.

South Africa in 1996 launched an amnesty program for nationals of the Southern African Development Community, but many applicants present false documents. Of the 201,606 applications in 1996, 114,432 were approved and 85,651 rejected. The Department of Home Affairs announced that it would press criminal charges against those who use fraudulent documents.

Emigration from South Africa was down five percent in the first four months of 1997, compared to the same period last year, according to the Central Statistical Service. In April, the number of professionals, semi-professionals and technicians who reported that they were emigrating was 202, while 58 professionals and semi-professionals immigrated into South Africa. The total number of documented immigrants in April, including those from other African countries, was 420 a decline of nine percent compared with the same month last year.

Slave Children. The New York Times on August 10, 1997 reported that the slave trade in children seems to be increasing in Central Africa, as well-dressed traders travel to poor rural areas in Benin and offer parents money, from $20 to $40, in exchange for their children, promising that the ones they take away will end up rich and successful.

The children, as young as eight, are forced to work without pay as cleaners or traders in Lagos, Nigeria, and some are forced to work as prostitutes. According to the report, "Many educated Nigerians tolerate and perpetuate the practice of using small children as unpaid workers and some justify it by saying that the children are better off with them than they would be in their villages."

Growth. African GDP expanded by five percent in 1996, the highest rate in a decade. However, with population growing by three percent a year, Africa needs a sustained seven percent rate of economic growth to create enough jobs. An estimated 40 percent of sub-Saharan Africa's 600 million people live on the equivalent of a dollar a day.

Ethiopia and Uganda, led East Africa in with economic growth rates of 12 percent and nine percent. Malawi had 16 percent growth, followed by Zimbabwe with eight percent and Mozambique with six percent. South Africa is the region's economic anchor and grew 3.3 percent; per capita income was $4,300.

Newton Kanhema, "Jobur's immigrant street hawkers vow to fight back," Africa News, August 20, 1997. "Child Slave Trade in Africa Highlighted by Arrests," New York Times, August 10, 1997. Audrey d'Angelo, "Fewer skilled emigrants this year," The Star, August 6, 1997.