JOHANNESBURG – Amnesty International says the unemployment crisis in South Africa is not due to foreign nationals in the country and high-ranking public officials and political leaders must stop blaming high unemployment and poverty on immigrants.
Talking to eNCA, the organisation’s Shenilla Mohamed says blaming the country’s joblessness on refugees and asylum seekers may spark xenophobia in South Africa.
“What has been happening over the years is that they have abdicated responsibility, they have thrown it out and left everyone to their own devices and under COVID-19 we know that many, many genuine asylum seekers were unable to get the documentation they needed,” she said.
“What does this mean? It means they are left vulnerable to situations like today where you have politicians using them in order to gain points. They are vulnerable to genuine xenophobic sentiments that exist in South Africa, which is really sad because a lot of these xenophobic sentiments are targetted at African nationals.”
