The Inclusive Society Institute participated in the UN Protection Working Group Meeting which was held on 20 October 2022. The meeting was called to discuss the outcomes on the PWG survey and proposals for reforming the PWG, as well as to determine the capacity needs of government, civil society and other stakeholders.
The Protection Working Group (PWG) is a UNHCR platform aimed at forging partnerships with civil society organisations across the country and directly supports implementing partners (IPs) to conduct xenophobia related programmes and activities in many areas through a range of approaches. It is the primary platform for civil society engagement on matters related to refugees, an initiative that has engendered concrete partnerships and collaborations between UNHCR and other organisations.
With the statistics on immigration grossly overstated in the public domain, the Inclusive Society Institute (ISI) is concerned with the sporadic outbreaks of xenophobic attacks based on the emotional outburst premised on wrong statistical data. Whilst popular speak refers to some 13 million illegal immigrants in the country, recent data from Statistics South Africa and the Human Sciences Research Council suggests only around 2 million illegal immigrants in South Africa.
The ISI is working on programmes aimed at better controlling immigration in South Africa, but also to moderate the immigration environment based on South Africa’s obligations under international law and the constitutional embodiment of a culture for human rights.