Human Rights Watch has released an eighty-nine page report entitled ‘No Healing Here: Violence, Discrimination and Barriers to Health for Migrants in South Africa’. It exposes the plight of refugees and migrants in South Africa. The report, based on interviews with over one hundred people, illustrates how asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in South Africa are being denied the basic healthcare and treatment that nationals receive.

The lack of support for these disadvantaged groups compounds the existing problems of poverty and discrimination that are prevalent among the migrant communities. This is in spite of the South African constitution which stipulates that refugees have a right to care. The report stipulates four courses of action to be undertaken by the South African state: (1) protection from deportation; (2) protection against xenophobic attacks; (3) protection against discrimination; and (4) ensure better data collection of the migrant population in South Africa, its health needs and the cost of care for the state.

Rebecca Shaeffer of Human Rights Watch commented: ‘migrants to South Africa are abused in transit, attacked upon arrival, and then denied care when they are injured or ill’. Shaeffer went on to say that ‘discrimination against foreigners is institutionalized in South Africa’s health care system’. South Africa’s health service is struggling to cope with the twin problems of the AIDS epidemic and the additional strain of migrant workers, many coming from Zimbabwe. The UN Refugee Agency recently estimated that there are over sixteen thousand Zimbabwean refugees living in South Africa.

The hardships suffered by this community were highlighted by the case of Tsitsi Makwiyana, a Zimbabwean refugee whose flight from her home country resulted in her being raped and left without money, documentation or resources in South Africa. Such stories are common, and many rape survivors report being unwilling to seek emergency medical treatment as this requires them to file a police report, something they are reluctant to do for fear of deportation.