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Catholic Commission in Lesotho Appeals to South Africa to Support Unaccompanied Children Crossing Border

Catholic Commission of Justice and Peace Launching of Coordinated Advocacy Project in Maseru border, Lesotho. Credit CCJP Lesotho

By Agnes Aineah

Maseru, 30 June, 2024 / 8:32 pm (ACI Africa).

Unaccompanied children crossing the Lesotho-South Africa border in search of better lives are living in “desperate conditions” in their host country, an official at the Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of the Lesotho Catholic Bishops Conference (LCBC) has said, and urged the South African government to support efforts by the two countries to improve the living conditions of the stateless children.

According to Mamokhantso Refiloe Nkune, the Mining and Social Justice Officer of the LCBC, children as young as two from Lesotho have been found unaccompanied on the streets of South Africa.

In an interview with Vatican News, Refiloe appealed to South Africans to be more welcoming to the Basotho, who are only trying to survive away from the harsh conditions in their country. She said, “We have difficult situations in Lesotho because of the high unemployment and poverty and our government is not doing enough for its people.”

“I have knowledge of the support that the Basotho gave to South Africans during the apartheid regime. I think it is high time we go back to that collaborative effort where we stood together as black people when the apartheid system was so horrible to South Africans,” the JPC official said in the interview published Monday, June 24.

Refiloe highlighted the plight of unaccompanied minors crossing illegally into South Africa from her home country Lesotho and asked the Southern African government to support initiatives to reduce statelessness.

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She described Lesotho as “a very unique country” in the way in which the country is landlocked by South Africa, adding, “No Mosotho can go anywhere in the world without passing through South Africa.”

“It would be good for South Africa, being our only neighbour, to be open to more collaborative efforts by both governments to help the human as a person because we are human in the end,” Refiloe said.

She said the JPC department had found out that some of the children she described as “unaccompanied” had been abandoned by their parents in South Africa. In other cases, their parents died in their host country and left them orphans away from their home country Lesotho. Others, especially teenagers, Refiloe said, cross the border by themselves.

“We are having situations of child-headed households with unaccompanied children having to fend for themselves and other children under their care. The children are living in very desperate situations because the government has failed them,” she said.

The JPC official further explained the challenges that the Catholic Bishops’ commission faces while trying to unite the children brought back from South Africa with their relatives in Lesotho.

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She said that owing to lack of resources, attempts to reunite the children with the families in Lesotho “doesn’t seem to be working.”

“The social department responsible for reuniting the children with their relatives in Lesotho always complains that they don’t have the resources necessary to reunite the children with their families. Some go back to the situations that forced them to leave, including poverty,” Refiloe said.

She added, “The social department in Lesotho needs to have reintegration programs such as family visits so that the children get used to the new family members before they are united. Otherwise we’ll keep having these cases of children who barely spend 48 hours in Lesotho before they come back to South Africa.”

She also pointed out what she described as constant reshuffling of ministers in Lesotho, saying that the changes in management hinder the progress of the JPC efforts to reduce statelessness.

“Whenever a new minister comes in, we find ourselves having to o re-introduce a project to them. Briefing them and getting them up to speed on what the project is can sometimes make our efforts fruitless,” Refiloe said.

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She also highlighted the challenge of coordinating two independent countries, saying, “Conducting birth certification and issuance of Identity Cards in a different country is not always easy. In our mission to end statelessness, however, our government has been very supportive of our activities.”

Agnes Aineah

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.