Leaders agreed the issue should be addressed at a broader continental level, a \u2060South African foreign affairs official has said<\/p>\n
The African Union (AU) supports South Africa\u2019s proposal for a continent-wide discussion on migration following recent tensions over illegal immigration, the South African Foreign Ministry has said.
\nClayson Monyela, the head of public diplomacy at South Africa\u2019s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), said on X on Thursday that Pretoria has \u201cdefeated the attempt to single out & isolate\u201d the country during discussions at the AU.\u00a0
\n\u201cThe AU has agreed with us. The AU will discuss the migration issue broadly & look at the \u2018Pull & Push\u2019 factors,\u201d he wrote. Monyela added that countries should examine the factors driving migration and said sending, transit, and destination countries \u201cmust collaborate to find solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
African nations repatriate citizens from South Africa<\/p>\n
Monyela\u2019s comments came after Ghana asked the AU to discuss what it described as \u201cxenophobic attacks in the Republic of South Africa against African nationals\u201d as a separate agenda of an upcoming meeting.
\nThe request followed a diplomatic dispute between the two countries after Ghana said one of its nationals was killed during anti-immigration protests in South Africa and raised concerns over the safety of African migrants. Pretoria rejected the claim, saying police investigations showed the man was shot a day before the protests in what authorities described as an extortion-related criminal attack.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: South Africa rejects Ghana xenophobia killing claim<\/p>\n
Last week, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola also stated the AU had agreed that migration should be discussed through a broader continental framework rather than by focusing on individual countries.
\n\u201cWe welcome any discussion that will be comprehensive on migration to deal with all issues, including the root causes of illegal migration,\u201d the minister said.
\nSouth Africa has stepped up deportations and border enforcement in recent months as part of its migration policy. Government figures show that more than 53,000 foreign nationals had been processed for deportation or repatriation as of July, after the authorities intensified a nationwide crackdown on illegal migration.
\nThe debate has intensified following anti-immigration demonstrations held across South Africa in June. Protest organizers demanded tougher action against undocumented migration, while rights groups warned against xenophobia and attacks on foreign nationals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leaders agreed the issue should be addressed at a broader continental level, a \u2060South African foreign affairs official has said The African Union (AU) supports South Africa\u2019s proposal for a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}