Written by Jane Freedman, Tamaryn Crankshaw and Marcia Mutambara
Our latest article at SRHM highlighted the vulnerability of women asylum seekers and refugee women in South Africa to gender-based violence and lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services. The current COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to significantly worsen the situation of these women and leave them in an even more vulnerable position.
Our research noted that despite the largely progressive nature of South Africa’s refugee laws (particularly the Refugee Act 1988), the ways in which the policies are implemented mean that asylum seekers face great difficulty in asserting their rights and obtaining legal refugee status.Masuku, 2020). Women seeking asylum find it very difficult to get an appointment with Home Affairs to make their asylum claim, sometimes being asked to travel across the country to another city to do so. Even for those who manage to file a claim, many are rejected leaving them without legal status. The fact that asylum applications are registered on a family basis, with women’s applications linked to those of their husbands, makes them legally dependent on a partner who could abandon them or be a perpetrator of violence against them.
The vast majority of women we interviewed were victims of sexual and gender-based violence in their country of origin, on their journey and/or on arrival in South Africa. The lack of legal status and the fact that the South African state does not provide any support for housing or living increases their vulnerabilities. Many of the women had slept on the streets due to a lack of alternative accommodation or had accepted sex in exchange for sleeping. Their only source of income was potentially finding work in the informal sector where they faced discrimination and exploitation. Lack of legal documentation and lack of money meant they felt unable to access health services for their sexual and reproductive health needs, and when they did, they were often met with xenophobia and rejection.
These existing conditions of vulnerability have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the responses to it. South Africa has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 cases on the African continent and, due to the exponential increase in the number of cases, was also one of the first African countries to implement lockdowns and other restrictive measures to try to reduce the number of new infections. The lockdown has an impact on the country’s social and economic activities. Since the lockdown, low-income South African households, informal traders and small businesses have been greatly affected. Asylum seekers and refugee women whose only source of income was in the informal sector have seen their resources disappear. Women who relied on this informal income to pay rent and bills, as well as food for themselves and their children, now face enormous challenges. Although the South African government has put in place relief mechanisms to help small and informal businesses and the most vulnerable in the population, these mechanisms only apply to South African citizens. Food packages are currently only provided to citizens (Human Rights Watch, 2020). Migrants and refugees have been excluded, leaving them stranded without any form of income or support. It is left to civil society and NGOs to try to provide what support they can in these difficult times.
For women asylum seekers and refugee women, the lockdown has also put them at increased risk of SGBV. Lockdown regulations require people to self-isolate and stay in their homes. However, for these women, homes are often also sites of abuse and violence, and during the current crisis, stress over uncertainty about sustainable future livelihoods may increase domestic violence. At the same time, survivor support services are disrupted and, in some cases, inaccessible.
Reports from South African police services during the first weeks of the lockdown revealed that there was a sharp increase in the number of reported cases of gender-based violence (Lefafa, 2020). Research has shown that most female asylum seekers and refugees do not report cases of abuse and domestic violence due to fear of the police and during this period of lockdown, they are even more at risk in confined spaces with their perpetrators.
The social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa and around the world has created an unprecedented crisis. While the government’s efforts to provide food and financial relief to vulnerable citizens are laudable, it is also important for South Africa’s national response plans to include support for asylum seekers and refugees and to take into account gender inequalities to ensure that women do not become even more vulnerable. This time of crisis highlights the need to move beyond discrimination and discrimination based on ethnicity and citizenship and to ensure that everyone living in South Africa has the means to survive without fear of violence.
Please note that blog posts are not peer-reviewed and do not necessarily reflect the views of SRHM as an organization.
