Open Letter: Mass arrests of foreign nationals, the rights of children, and the dignity of migrant families

Civil society has written an open letter to the ministers of Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, International Relations and Cooperation, Home Affairs and Police urging them to halt mass migrant arrests.

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Dear Ministers,

We write to you as civil society organisations, academics and individuals who are deeply committed to human rights, child protection, and the rule of law in South Africa.

We do so with urgency, and with a profound sense of concern – and, we must say plainly, shame – at what appears to be a coordinated strategy of mass arrests targeting African foreign nationals across several provinces.

We are aware of reports that provincial police operations have been mobilised to conduct large-scale arrests of anyone suspected of being an undocumented or irregular African migrant. We understand that these operations may be intended to demonstrate responsiveness to anti-immigrant sentiment and to reassure certain constituencies that law enforcement will act. We want to be direct: this strategy rests on a fundamental misreading of where South Africans stand.

The overwhelming majority of South Africans do not support violence, aggression, or the stripping of dignity from human beings as a response to immigration challenges. Pandering to the loudest voices does not serve our constitutional order, and it does not serve our people.

Our most urgent concern: The impact on children

Children are witnessing their parents being arrested. They are being separated from caregivers without warning, without arrangement, and apparently without any protocol to ensure their safety. In some instances, children appear to be detained alongside their parents. We ask each of your departments directly:

What happens to a child when a parent or caregiver is arrested during these operations and no alternative care arrangement has been made?

What provisions are made for children at so-called repatriation sites?

What child protection protocols, if any, are being followed at the point of arrest?

Where children have been detained with their parents, under what legal authority, in what conditions, and for how long?

How many families have been separated as a result of these operations to date?

What mechanisms exist for families to locate one another after arrest and detention?

These are not rhetorical questions. They are questions to which children and their families – and the South African public – deserve urgent, transparent answers.

Broader human rights and constitutional concerns

Beyond the immediate child protection crisis, we are gravely concerned about the broader human rights implications of mass arrest operations premised on ethnicity or nationality rather than individual grounds for suspicion. Such approaches raise serious constitutional questions, expose the state to international legal scrutiny, and undermine South Africa’s standing as a country committed to dignity, equality, and the rule of law — values enshrined in our Constitution and upheld in the international instruments to which South Africa is a signatory.

South Africa has a regional and continental responsibility. The countries whose citizens are being swept up in these operations are our neighbours, our colleagues, and our trading partners. and in In many cases they are countries whose nationals have fled violence, persecution, and economic collapse. How we treat the most vulnerable people at our borders — and in our streets — defines who we are as a nation, and shapes the region’s sense of us as a partner.

Our calls to action

We call on your offices, urgently and collectively, to:

Immediately suspend mass arrest operations targeting suspected undocumented migrants.

Ensure that no child is separated from a parent or primary caregiver as a result of immigration enforcement operations, in line with the best interests of the child standard in the Children’s Act and international law.

Ensure that all persons – regardless of nationality or documentation status – are treated with dignity, afforded due process, and protected from inhumane or degrading treatment.

Provide a full public account of the number of arrests made, the number of children affected, the conditions of detention, and the care arrangements in place for children whose caregivers have been detained.

We understand that irregular migration is a genuine governance challenge. We do not dismiss it. But governance challenges are not solved by mass arrests, by the spectacle of cruelty, or by policies that harm children and inflame hatred. They are solved by sustained, well-resourced, and rights-respecting systems – the kind of systems that South Africa is capable of building.
We remain willing to engage with your offices constructively. We ask only that you act, and act now, before more children are caught in a nightmare not of their making.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Chandré Gould, Institute for Security Studies
Dr Penelope Parenzee, Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town
Professor Catherine Ward, University of Cape Town
Sharon S Ekambaram, Refugee and Migrant Rights Program, Lawyers for Human Rights
Sive Vaaltein, Seven Passes Initiative

Dhiya Matai, Institute for Security Studies
Cathi Eagan, Institute for Security Studies
Vanya, Gastrow, Institute for Security Studies
Andisiwe Makwecana, Institute for Security Studies
Helen Chanda, Institute for Security Studies
Kelly Stone, Institute for Security Studies
Senzikile Bengu, Institute for Security Studies
Wilmi Dippenaar, South African Parenting Programme Implementer’s Network Edith Kriel, Jelly Beanz Foundation
Tarisai Mchchu MacMillan, MOSAIC
Cheryl, Frank, Institute for Security Studies
Mark Heywood, Justice and Activism Hub and Union Against Hunger Suzanne Clulow, Child Advocacy Programme Manager, CINDI
Lizette Lancaster, Institute for Security Studies
Riedwhaan Allie, Foundation for Community Work
Christina Nomdu, Child Centred Governance Academy

Mikhulu Child Development Trust
Lawyers for Human Rights
CINDI
Teddy Bear Foundation for Abused Children Centre for Child Law

Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town

Cape Outdoor Adventure Service and Training The Parent Centre

Sue Philpott
Judy Connors
Cheryl Frank
Judy Connors
Nicola Kathleen Crous. DM

Maverick Citizen

mass migrant arrests

human rights protections

immigration enforcement operations

xenophobia