Malawian migrant workers ill-treated in S Africa

The Institute for Social Law and Policy at the Northwestern University in South Africa says migrant workers from Malawi and other Sadc countries find themselves in precarious positions especially when it comes to social security because of several legal restrictions.

In a report titled Social Protection and Migrant Workers from Malawi, Oliver Marius, one of the report’s authors, said the legal principle of the territorial application of national laws generally prevalent in countries such as Malawi implies that Malawian workers are generally excluded from social security laws that operate in their countries.

“The mistreatment of Malawian migrant workers, as is the case with many intra-Sadc and Africa migrants in the xenophobic attacks especially in South Africa has been widely reported. In the absence of legal and policy frameworks and special measures that respond adequately to their positions in social security and in the absence of suitable bilateral treaties, Malawian migrant workers are effectively discriminated against in law and practice,” he said.

Marius said the discrimination affects, in particular, specific vulnerable groups including women involved in cross border trade.

“In fact, several UN supervisory bodies have been critical of South Africa’s ill-treatment of categories of non-citizens, including the lack of adequate access to all social services for refugee and asylum seeking children and the absence of appropriate family reunification measures,” he said..

Marius said that one of the reasons Malawian workers’ find themselves in this situation is that they are mostly unskilled or semi skilled and are typically found at the lower end of the labour market.

Ministry of Labour spokesperson Maganizo Mazeze concurred with Marius’ report but attributed the mistreatment of Malawian workers to shortcuts they use to get jobs in South Africa.

“The situation in South Africa is a little bit complex because most Malawians engage in illegal employment. Most of the times many Malawians who seek jobs in South Africa do not have proper documents and even if they are ill-treated, they do not report to the authorities for fear of being deported,” he said.

Mazeze urged those who plan to migrate to South Africa to follow proper procedures because it becomes easy for government to intervene once they are found to be ill-treated in any foreign country.