The Southern African Liaison Office (SALO) is a South African-based not-for-profit civil society organisation which, through advocacy, dialogue, policy consensus and in-depth research and analysis, influences the current thinking and debates on foreign policy especially regarding African crises and conflicts.
For the Southern African Liaison Office (SALO), democracy is not restricted to elections and institutions. It’s about establishing meaningful spaces where people can engage, communicate, influence decisions, and hold those in positions of authority accountable.
Democracy is stronger when civil society, communities, and policymakers can convene as diverse voices to share perspectives, build consensus, and develop solutions to the challenges facing our region.
The UN General Assembly passed a resolution in 2007 urging governments to bolster and solidify democracy, which led to the creation of the International Day of Democracy.
Marking the International Day of Democracy 2026, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres emphasised “the importance of bringing together people from across societies to enrich decision-making, foster trust, and build more peaceful, inclusive, and resilient societies.”
Across Southern Africa, women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons are increasingly participating in both internal and cross-border migration. Like all migrants, their movements within and across the region tend to be shaped by a range of factors, including the search for better economic opportunities, political instability, and, increasingly, environmental and climate-related pressures.[1] Importantly, women are increasingly migrating independently as workers, breadwinners, and heads of households, challenging traditional assumptions that women migrate primarily as dependants accompanying male migrants.[2] South Africa occupies an important position within these regional migration patterns as a country of origin, transit, and destination.
While migration can present various opportunities, challenges, and risks, women, girls, and LGBTQI+ persons often experience heightened vulnerabilities throughout the migration process. These risks can occur both during migration and after arrival in destination countries. Many women face gender-based violence, xenophobia, social exclusion, and economic exploitation, while LGBTQI+ persons may experience discrimination, violence, abuse, marginalisation, and threats to their personal safety. These vulnerabilities can be further compounded by factors such as nationality, migration or documentation status, race, socioeconomic position, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The current immigration challenges in South Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region have further intensified some of these vulnerabilities. Yet, the gendered and intersectional dimensions of migration continue to receive insufficient attention in migration policy and governance.
This article considers why people migrate, the changing role of women in migration across Southern Africa, the particular challenges confronting women and LGBTQI+ migrants, and the measures required to strengthen gender-responsive and inclusive migration governance in South Africa and the broader SADC region.
Why do people move?
South Africa hosts the largest population of migrant women on the African continent. According to Statistics South Africa (2025), of the approximately 2,4 million international migrants in the country, just over one million are women, accounting for around 42% of the total migrant population.[3] Many originate from neighbouring SADC countries, including Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.[4]
While reliable quantitative data on LGBTQI+ migrants in South Africa remain limited, largely due to the challenges these migrants face in accessing services, reporting their experiences, and navigating migration processes, emerging research indicates that they constitute a significant part of the country’s migrant and asylum-seeking population. A survey tool developed by the University of the Witwatersrand provides evidence of the presence of substantial numbers of LGBTI+ migrants and asylum seekers in South Africa, supporting what has long been suspected but has been difficult to quantify.[5]
The decision to migrate is shaped by a range of interconnected factors. While many people move in search of better economic prospects, education, and improved living conditions, others are compelled to leave because of conflict, environmental and climate-related crises, or persistent gender inequality.
For women, however, migration should not be understood solely as a response to hardship or vulnerability. Women increasingly migrate independently in pursuit of employment, education, economic independence, and personal aspirations. Research on migration within the SADC region has documented a changing pattern in which growing numbers of women migrate independently and as heads of households, with important implications for families, communities, and remittance flows.[6] At the same time, some women migrate to escape gender inequality, domestic and sexual violence, conflict, or persecution. UN Women notes that many migrant women in South Africa have experienced community or political violence, rape, or domestic abuse in their countries of origin. Migration can therefore simultaneously reflect agency, aspiration, and necessity.
Similarly, some LGBTQI+ migrants flee persecution and discrimination based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, with South Africa often viewed as a potential safe haven.[7] For these migrants, movement may be driven by threats to their safety, criminalisation of same-sex relationships, discriminatory laws, violence, and hostile social environments that remain prevalent in parts of the African continent. South Africa’s constitutional framework is comparatively progressive: Section 9 of the Constitution expressly prohibits unfair discrimination on grounds including gender, sex, and sexual orientation.[8] Its refugee framework also recognises persecution related to sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds for asylum. These legal protections have contributed to South Africa being an important destination for LGBTQI+ people seeking safety and protection.[9]
The Gendered Impact of Migration
While migration can create opportunities for greater economic independence, security and personal autonomy, migrant women may also experience intersecting vulnerabilities linked to gender, nationality, migration or documentation status, race and socio-economic position. LGBTQI+ migrants and asylum seekers can experience additional discrimination and insecurity associated with sexual orientation and gender identity.
Migrant women in South Africa face difficulties accessing decent and secure employment. UN Women reports that an estimated 18% of migrant women are employed, compared with 46% of migrant men. Many employed migrant women are concentrated in informal employment, particularly domestic work, frequently without written contracts or medical aid coverage.[10] This can increase vulnerability to exploitation and abuse. Gender can also intersect with race, nationality and migration status to create multiple forms of disadvantage. Migrant women may experience sexual and gender-based violence, xenophobia and discrimination in communities and when accessing institutions including schools, courts and hospitals. Limited information about their rights, relevant laws, available services and migration procedures can compound these vulnerabilities.[11] Documentation difficulties can further restrict access to employment, healthcare and other services and increase vulnerability to exploitation. These experiences also differ considerably between groups: the circumstances of a documented professional migrant, an informal cross-border trader, refugee, asylum seeker, undocumented woman, survivor of gender-based violence or woman with a disability cannot be assumed to be the same.
An intersectional perspective must also recognise the experiences of LGBTQI+ migrants and asylum seekers. South Africa’s strong constitutional protections coexist with significant difficulties in translating formal rights into practice. Research has documented barriers experienced by LGBTQI+ asylum seekers in accessing legal protection, essential services and employment, despite South Africa’s comparatively progressive legal framework.[12]
This gap between policy and implementation was acknowledged by Department of Home Affairs (DHA) representative Diketso Ratau during a 2025 SALO dialogue. Ratau noted that, although South Africa’s laws recognise asylum claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity, practical realisation of these rights remains inconsistent. Challenges identified included bias and inadequate understanding among some officials, inconsistent application of guidelines, documentation delays, insufficient training, limited disaggregated data and a lack of dedicated safe spaces. DHA further acknowledged that documentation delays can increase exposure to exploitation, xenophobia, harassment and violence.[13]
Human rights lawyer Wendy Isaack provided a complementary civil society perspective, arguing that many of the difficulties reported by African LGBTQI+ asylum seekers in 2025 closely resemble those reported two decades earlier. She highlighted bias in refugee status determination, inadequate provision of information, lengthy delays and failures to consistently implement existing refugee and administrative law. Isaack further emphasised that LGBTQI+ asylum seekers can experience multiple and overlapping forms of discrimination associated not only with sexual orientation or gender identity, but also with nationality, race and class.[14]
Towards Gender-Responsive Migration Governance
At the continental level, the African Union has developed relatively progressive and migration-aware frameworks, particularly through the AU Revised Migration Policy Framework for Africa and Plan of Action (2018–2030), the AU Maputo Plan of Action (2016–2030) for the operationalisation of the Continental Policy Framework on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Agenda 2063, and the Common African Position (CAP) on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).[15] These frameworks recognise the complexity of migration and incorporate issues such as gender, human rights, labour mobility, health, and migrant protection. However, their impact is often limited by a significant gap between policy commitments and implementation.[16] Continental institutions can establish standards, provide guidance, and encourage governments to act, but their ability to ensure that these commitments are translated into concrete action at national and local levels remains limited.
South Africa and the SADC region are likewise not without relevant legal and policy frameworks. At the regional level, these include the SADC Regional Migration Policy Framework and Action Plan, the SADC Protocol on Facilitation of Movement of Persons, the SADC Labour Migration Action Plan, and the SADC Regional Strategy and Framework of Action for Addressing GBV.[17] Despite SADC’s efforts to facilitate the movement of people and strengthen regional integration, migration governance across Southern Africa remains largely fragmented and driven by national interests.[18] Migration continues to be approached primarily through the lens of border control and security, rather than as a shared regional issue that also requires attention to human rights, development, and the protection of migrants.
Furthermore, South Africa has extensive constitutional and refugee-law protections, while regional and international frameworks provide additional standards for protecting migrants’ rights. The challenge is increasingly to translate these commitments into consistent policy implementation and practical protection.
The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is one relevant international framework in this regard. It establishes gender-responsiveness as a cross-cutting guiding principle and calls for migration governance that considers the different realities faced by women and men throughout the migration cycle, promotes gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and addresses intersecting inequalities.[19] The GCM should therefore complement rather than replace national and regional approaches to gender-responsive migration governance.
Recent discussions concerning implementation of the GCM nevertheless illustrate a broader challenge. During consultations on the UN Network on Migration’s 2026-2028 work plan, Women in Migration Network reported that gender-responsiveness was explicitly referenced in only 48% of national progress reports submitted for the 2026 International Migration Review Forum. Participants consequently called for stronger institutional mechanisms, gender-responsive indicators and better national and regional follow-up.[20] This reinforces the wider lesson for South Africa and SADC: formal recognition of gender responsiveness needs to be matched by measurable implementation.
Conclusion
The changing face of migration in Southern Africa requires migration governance that recognises both the agency of women who migrate and the differentiated vulnerabilities that migrants may experience. Women increasingly migrate independently in pursuit of employment, education, security and personal aspirations, while others move in response to violence, persecution, economic hardship or environmental pressures. Gender, however, intersects with migration status, nationality, sexuality, race, disability and class to shape migrants’ experiences during movement and after arrival.
South Africa has important constitutional and legal protections, while regional and international frameworks, including the GCM, provide additional tools for strengthening gender-responsive migration governance. The central challenge is translating these commitments into practice. For South Africa and the wider SADC region, this requires stronger implementation and accountability, better gender-responsive data, improved access to decent work and essential services, greater regional and whole-of-government coordination, and meaningful participation by migrant women themselves and other affected communities in policy processes. Ultimately, migration governance should seek not only to protect women and other migrants from harm, but also to recognise their agency, contributions, rights, and dignity.
[1] Migration Data Portal (2021). Migration Data in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). [online] Migration data portal. Available at: https://www.migrationdataportal.org/regional-data-overview/southern-africa [Accessed 7 Aug. 2026].
[3] Statistics South Africa (2025). Understanding South Africa’s Immigrant and Internal Migration Stats | Statistics South Africa. [online] Statssa.gov.za. Available at: https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=18042 [Accessed 12 Aug. 2026].
[5] The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (2023). 2023-03 – Major new study on LGBTIQ+ migrants and asylum seekers – Wits University. [online] Wits.ac.za. Available at: https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/opinion/2023/2023-03/major-new-study-on-lgbtiq-migrants-and-asylum-seekers-.html [Accessed 12 Aug. 2026].
[7] Sonke Gender Justice. (2019). Gender, Migration, and Health in SADC – Sonke Gender Justice. [online] Available at: https://genderjustice.org.za/publication/gender-migration-and-health-in-sadc/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2026].
[13] Diketso Ratau, Department of Home Affairs, SALO Public Dialogue, From Policy to Implementation – Accelerating Respect for and Delivery of LGBTQIA+ Rights, Including LGBTQIA+ Refugees, 29 May 2025,Available at: https://youtu.be/dPxIK9xjkvw?si=uIYePmq2GDnVs-Wp
[14] Wendy Isaack, SALO Public Dialogue, From Policy to Implementation – Accelerating Respect for and Delivery of LGBTQIA+ Rights, Including LGBTQIA+ Refugees, 29 May 2025,Available at: https://youtu.be/dPxIK9xjkvw?si=uIYePmq2GDnVs-Wp
[15] Sonke Gender Justice. (2019). Gender, Migration, and Health in SADC – Sonke Gender Justice. [online] Available at: https://genderjustice.org.za/publication/gender-migration-and-health-in-sadc/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2026].
[16] Sonke Gender Justice. (2019). Gender, Migration, and Health in SADC – Sonke Gender Justice. [online] Available at: https://genderjustice.org.za/publication/gender-migration-and-health-in-sadc/ [Accessed 9 Aug. 2026].
[17] SADC Develops Regional Migration Policy Framework | SADC. (2020). [online] Sadc.int. Available at: https://www.sadc.int/latest-news/sadc-develops-regional-migration-policy-framework [Accessed 14 Aug. 2026].
[18] Bhanye, J., 2025. Regional Migration Challenges and Opportunities in Southern Africa: A Review Study. The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems, pp.1-51.
On 9 August 1956, thousands of South African women united against the apartheid pass laws, challenging restrictions on black people’s freedom. Their courage marked a pivotal moment in our fight for equality.#NationalWomensDay#WomensDay1956#Equality#SALO
Recent debates on migration in South Africa have intensified, evolving into a significant national and regional issue marked by widespread sporadic anti-immigrant protests and the departure of more than 160,000 foreign nationals, according to an AFP tally.[1] While official government reports indicated that the South African government has processed over 72 906 people for repatriation or deportation between 7 June and 14 July. [2] Public discourse has largely centered on undocumented adults, border security, and irregular migration. Yet, amid these debates, one important story has remained largely overlooked: that of the undocumented child.
According to a 2018 SIHMA report, nearly one million children in South Africa were undocumented at the time.[3] More recent figures suggest that the challenge remains significant. A recent Parliamentary media statement reported that more than 610,000 learners in South Africa are undocumented.[4] Of these, over 360,000 are South African nationals, highlighting that the country’s documentation challenges extend beyond migrant communities and affect a substantial number of South African children as well.
For these children, the absence of legal identity extends far beyond an administrative challenge. Without official documentation, they are often excluded from government systems and prevented from fully realising the rights and protections guaranteed to them under the constitution. Ensuring that every child is documented is therefore not merely an administrative obligation; it is a fundamental human rights and human security imperative.
This article argues that the lack of legal documentation is one of the greatest barriers to the realisation of children’s rights in Southern Africa. Without birth registration, identity documents, or recognised nationality, children face significant obstacles to accessing education, healthcare, social protection, and legal safeguards, rendering them effectively invisible to state systems.[5] It further argues that xenophobic narratives and increasingly securitised migration debates risk using documentation status as a basis for exclusion, underscoring the need for evidence-based, rights-centred approaches that protect all children.
When a Child Becomes Invisible: The impact on children and why documentation matters.
Every child has the right to a legal identity. Under international law, including treaties to which South Africa is a party, such as the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, every child is entitled to a name, a nationality, and immediate birth registration.[6] These protections are reinforced by South Africa’s Constitution, which guarantees every child the right to a name and a nationality from birth, regardless of their nationality or immigration status.[7] Yet, for many children, these rights remain out of reach. Administrative barriers, including stringent birth registration requirements for parents with expired documents or citizens’ blocked identity numbers, leave many children without birth certificates.
Birth registration rates reflect significant global inequalities. While global registration has reached 77%, Sub-Saharan Africa lags somewhat behind. The average birth registration rate for children under five in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region is 58%, with significant variance between member states.[8]
According to UNICEF (2024), 14 million children under the age of five are not registered in Southern Africa alone, while 19 million do not have birth certificates at all. The absence of this foundational document has far-reaching consequences that extend well beyond childhood.
Without legal documentation, many struggle to access essential services such as healthcare and education and, in some cases, face an increased risk of statelessness, detention, or deportation. Their vulnerability extends even further, exposing them to risks such as human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and child labour.[9] These barriers not only deny children their fundamental rights but also place them among the most vulnerable members of society.
The consequences extend far beyond childhood. Without a birth certificate, a child cannot prove their age, paternity or place of birth, information that is often required to establish nationality and obtain other identity documents. This automatically disenfranchises the individual from their rights. According to the Lawyers for Human Rights Statelessness Unit, during an outreach event held in Orange Farm on 7 July 2026, many parents lacked the documentation, including identity documents, required to register their children’s births, resulting in an intergenerational documentation deficit.[10]
According to UNHCR and UNICEF, a stateless child “can face a lifetime of discrimination,” with profound consequences for their ability to access education, healthcare, and other opportunities. Recognising these challenges, UNHCR’s Global Appeal 2026 commits to supporting governments in reforming nationality laws, strengthening legal safeguards against childhood statelessness, and assisting stateless people in obtaining nationality, legal assistance where necessary, and essential identity documentation.[11]
The Evidence: Principles for effective Messaging
Leveraging from literature monitored, the following may be seen as evidence-based principles that emerge for communicating on migration.
Lead with common values, not statistics: The Joint Research Centre (JRC) analysis shows that narratives based on universal values (dignity, fairness, and child protection) are more appealing than data-driven appeals. The labelling of undocumented children as “children first” rather than “migrants first” fosters empathy rather than a negative, fearful perception.
Individual stories within a structural setting can help to humanise: Individual narratives are only effective when contextualised inside systemic constraints that create vulnerability, such as documentation requirements. A child without a birth certificate is not unusual, but rather a foreseeable result of policy design. As such, it can be resolved through policy/legislative amendments.
Challenge the “illegality” term directly: The Commonwealth Roundtable’s (October 2025) research on media and migration[12]discovered that the term “illegal” when referring to individuals rather than activities is one of the most significant promoters of dehumanisation, and this position is highlighted as a priority in advocacy and policy discussions by SALO. Evidence-based media must emphasise “undocumented” or “irregular” status and clarify that documentation gaps are administrative failings, not moral ones.
Focus on children’s voices and rights: The Convention on the Rights of the Child establishes a binding legal framework that requires states to register every child promptly after birth (Article 7) and to protect children from all types of discrimination (Article 2)[13]. Messaging based on CRC requirements elevates documentation from a discretionary policy option to a legal necessity.
From Blame to Solutions: How governance can respond more effectively and humanely.
The exclusion experienced by undocumented children is not inevitable; it reflects a gap between South Africa’s legal commitments and their implementation. South African and international legal frameworks place a clear obligation on the state to safeguard the rights of all children, regardless of their documentation status. Through its ratification of international agreements such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, South Africa and other AU member states have committed to protecting the rights of every child within their borders [14] This commitment includes ensuring access to essential services such as healthcare, education, food, and shelter, irrespective of whether a child possesses official documentation.
Fulfilling these obligations requires more than legal commitments on paper; it demands governance systems that are efficient, accessible, and child-centred. Addressing administrative barriers to documentation is therefore not only a matter of good governance but also a necessary step towards ensuring that every child can fully enjoy the rights guaranteed by law.
National policy must treat identity documentation as a public good and good governance mechanism that safeguards both children and communities. This includes ensuring universal, free birth registration, strengthening legal protections against childhood statelessness, establishing safe and separate registration procedures that do not expose families to immigration enforcement, and guaranteeing access to education and healthcare regardless of documentation status. Furthermore, documentation allows states to appropriately plan and budget for service delivery and development, thus laying the foundations for national developmental planning.
Across the SADC region, these measures should be complemented by targeted public communication, media training, community-led narratives, proactive responses to misinformation, and meaningful engagement with traditional leaders. Together, these approaches can reduce the human and financial costs of exclusion while strengthening social cohesion.
Conclusion
Evidence-based messaging can and must play an important role in tackling the situation. According to research, rights-based narratives focused on children and grounded in universal values are more effective than threat-based frameworks in gaining public support for inclusive policies. Governments are responsible for removing documentation impediments, the media for reporting correctly and humanely, and civil society for holding both parties accountable.
As Pascale Moreau remarked, “Life is stacked against a stateless child from the beginning. They, like all of us, can dream and hope, but the legal barriers they confront frequently mean that their dreams are destroyed before they reach adulthood, and their potential is squandered.”[15] Closing the documentation gap is more than just an administrative reform; it is the foundation for all other rights and the most potent counter-narrative to xenophobia possible.
[2] SAnews. (2026). Government scales down Musina repatriation centre. [online] Available at: https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/government-scales-down-musina-repatriation-centre [Accessed 27 July 2026].
[3] commsintern (2018). The impact of being an undocumented child. [online] Scalabrini. Available at: https://www.scalabrini.org.za/the-impact-of-being-an-undocumented-child/ [Accessed 19 July 2026].
[4] Parliament.gov.za. (2026). Media Statement: Education Portfolio Committee Concerned About Undocumented South African Learners – Parliament of South Africa. [online] Available at: https://www.parliament.gov.za/press-releases/media-statement-education-portfolio-committee-concerned-about-undocumented-south-african-learners [Accessed 22 July 2026].
[6] ScalabriniCT. (2024). Birth Registration in South Africa – Scalabrini. [online] Available at: https://www.scalabrini.org.za/resources/2019-pre-2020/birth-registration-in-south-africa-2/ [Accessed 27 July 2026].
[7] Tamsin Metelerkamp (2026). Watch – The invisible children: South Africa’s late birth registration backlog. [online] Daily Maverick. Available at: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/video/2026-07-15-watch-the-invisible-children-south-africas-late-birth-registration-backlog/?utm_medium=social&utm_sourcehttps://www.dailymaverick.co.za/video/2026-07-15-watch-the-invisible-children-south-africas-late-birth-registration-backlog/?utm_medium=social&utm_source [Accessed 22 July 2026].
[8] Citizenship and Statelessness in the Member States of the Southern African Development Community (2020). Citizenship and Statelessness in the Member States of the Southern African Development Community. [Online] UNHCR Operational Data Portal (ODP). Available at: https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/84802.
[9] commsintern (2018). The impact of being an undocumented child. [online] Scalabrini. Available at: https://www.scalabrini.org.za/the-impact-of-being-an-undocumented-child/ [Accessed 19 July 2026].
[10]Lawyers For Human Rights, (2026). Facebook post on Orange Farm Outreach. [Online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/lawyersforhumanrights/posts/-on-7-july-2026-our-statelessness-unit-partnered-with-the-orange-farm-human-righ/1444306721057194/.
“It’s still in our hands to combat poverty and inequity“
Poverty cannot be defeated by attacking the poor. Mandela Day challenges South Africans to confront poverty, inequality and exclusion without turning vulnerable communities against one another. It calls on citizens and institutions to defend dignity, uphold the Constitution, combat vigilantism and xenophobia, and renew the African solidarity that helped make South Africa’s freedom possible
“I am South African. I am Mozambican. I am Zambian. I am Zimbabwean. Migration is in our blood! The borders were created by colonisers.” – Graca Machel, a former first lady of both South Africa and Mozambique (29 April 2015)
