FOLLOW THE MONEY — UNHCR PAYS FOR REFUGEES, SOUTH AFRICA POCKETS IT AND DUMPS THEM IN OUR TOWNSHIPS

By Mpho Dube, Editor-in-Chief

The Azanian | Truth. Fearless. Unfiltered.  

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JOHANNESBURG —South Africa has been compromised, and now we know why. It was never about ubuntu. It was never about human rights. It was about money.

A post that has set South Africa alight this week has exposed the secret the government does not say: "Refugees and asylum seekers, UNHCR pays for them. That is something that the government doesn't say. The countries that have camps, the UNHCR pays refugees on a monthly basis. South Africa chose to integrate them to the community and take the money." — Johnico Remy Mobembo

Read that again. Slowly.

In other countries, refugees are kept in camps. UNHCR pays them monthly. The money is accounted for. The people are counted, vetted, monitored.

In South Africa, we did the opposite. We chose integration. We released them into Soweto, into Durban, into Ivory Park, into every township in this country — and we took the money.

Where did the money go? Who received it? How much per head? Why has no Home Affairs Minister ever stood before Parliament and told South Africans: "This is how much UNHCR pays us per refugee, and this is where it goes"?

That silence is the scandal.

Because while government takes the money in Pretoria and Geneva, it is the people of Soweto and Durban who pay the price on the ground. Sporadic riots. Shops looted. Communities on edge. South Africans saying they are tired of being subjected to atrocities in their own country, in their own townships.

And now the second part of the puzzle falls into place — the part from your previous post, President:Pakistan and Bangladesh did not sign any refugee treaty and do not accept refugees — but their citizens are posing as refugees in South Africa.

Pakistan is NOT a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. Bangladesh is NOT a signatory. Neither country operates an asylum system. Neither takes refugees.

Yet in South Africa, their nationals constitute some of the biggest numbers in our asylum system. They run spaza shops in every township on asylum papers. Their own countries refuse to be bound by the same laws they invoke here.

How does that make sense? It makes sense only if you follow the money.

If UNHCR pays per refugee, then the more asylum seekers South Africa accepts, the more money flows. The system is incentivised to stay open. To stay backlogged. To stay broken.

Over 200,000 cases backlog. No proper vetting. No criminal checks from home countries. Just a Section 22 permit and you disappear into the township economy. Same fingerprints, different names. No extradition. No way to verify if the man claiming to be a refugee is a genuine victim or a dangerous person who killed people in his own country and fled here to hide.

And when Home Affairs tries to clean it? A court challenge appears. A well-funded NGO obtains an urgent interdict. The UN agencies have mastered putting pressure on South Africa through funding and the judiciary, which benefits the government of the day.

Now ask the question South Africans must demand an answer to: Who of these countries that rush to court to interdict Home Affairs are even signatories to any treaty accepting refugees? When NGOs take South Africa to court, who is funding them?

Is it UNHCR money? Is it foreign donor money? Is it money meant for refugees being used to sue the South African state to keep the tap open?

The ultimate question remains:How does our country grant asylum to a citizen whose country does not have an asylum-friendly law?

If Pakistan and Bangladesh say "we do not take refugees", why must South Africa be forced to take their citizens as refugees under a UN Convention drafted in 1951 for post-war Europe, which they themselves rejected?

And now the new question from this post:If UNHCR pays for refugees monthly in camps, where is South Africa's monthly money — and why are refugees living in our townships instead of camps, competing for RDP houses, jobs, and spaza shops?

Deputy President Mashatile yesterday called for calm in Soweto and Durban. But calm without answers will not hold. Calm without transparency on the UNHCR money will not hold.

South Africans are not xenophobic for asking these questions. They are patriotic. They are asking: Who is getting paid while we suffer?

The answer is now clear: South Africa must pull out of the UN Refugee Convention altogether and write its own law — a law based on reciprocity, on national interest, and on security. A law that says: If your country does not take refugees, you cannot claim refugee status here. A law that says: If UNHCR pays, South Africans must see the books.

You cannot be a refugee from a country that does not recognise refugees. And you cannot run a secret business where foreign agencies pay government to dump unvetted people into our communities.

South Africa has been compromised. The money trail proves it.

Follow the money. Open the books. Pull out now.