Human rights lawyers issue directive to schools about undocumented children
An Edenvale school governing body threatened to take immigrant pupils to the police — laywers declare ‘children are always entitled to their rights’
Human rights lawyers are urging the Department of Basic Education to issue a directive instructing all schools to immediately stop the practice of discriminating against foreign and undocumented children by refusing access and charging higher fees. The directive should also indicate that schools have a responsibility to help children obtain documents‚ Lawyers for Human Rights‚ the Centre for Child Law and Equal Education Law Centre said in a joint statement. This comes after an Edenvale‚ Ekurhuleni‚ school governing body issued a letter last week that threatened to take immigrant pupils without valid paperwork to the police. Following outrage on social media‚ the governing body called the letter "unfortunate" and said it "unreservedly" apologised for any hurt the letter may have caused. The human rights lawyers said that although the school has retracted the letter‚ "unfortunately the Eastleigh school incident is not an isolated event". "At the beginning of each school year‚ and par...
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