WHITE PAPER
SA needs to move on legislation for securing migrants’ rights
ILO warns South Africa to avoid a system that forces migrants underground and distorts labour competition
With international migration trends pointing to the increased movement of citizens, SA is being urged to tackle its inadequate labour migration legislation. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) in SA is imploring the government to finalise its white paper on international migration, aimed at providing solutions to myriad issues faced by people migrating to the country. ILO director for Pretoria Joni Musabayana says that while the security imperative is still paramount, countries need to put in place a rights-based, development-orientated migration legislative framework. While not discounting SA’s developmental agenda to attract migrants with higher skills, he says the management of low-skilled migrants competing with locals to earn a living in areas with the biggest development backlogs — informal settlements — is a huge challenge. "Create instruments that make people official documented migrants, rather than creating a system that forces people underground and make them more...
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