PASSOP
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This article was last edited by Refugeeadvocacy (talk | contribs) 16 years ago. (Update timer) |
PASSOP (People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty) is a community based, grass roots organization devoted to fighting for the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants in Cape Town, South Africa. It is unique in that it is an advocacy and activist organisation that draws the bulk of its members from the refugee community. By identifying and exposing corruption within the Home Affairs Department, PASSOP has greatly increased the number of asylum seekers being served each day (from around 20 before the creation of PASSOP to now over 200). Through protest action, PASSOP has brought the issues of corruption and xenophobia to the public eye.
Founding
PASSOP (People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty) is a community based, grass roots organization devoted to fighting for the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants in Cape Town, South Africa. PASSOP is unique from other advocacy and activist organisations, in that it draws the bulk of its members from the refugee community. By identifying and exposing corruption within the Home Affairs Department, PASSOP has greatly increased the number of asylum seekers being served each day (from around 20 before the creation of PASSOP to now over 200). Through protest action, PASSOP has brought the issues of corruption and xenophobia to the public eye.
FOUNDING PASSOP was founded in 2007 by a group of Zimbabweans and spearheaded by [[Braam Hanekom]. Though originally established in response to increased tensions between Zimbabwean foriegn nationals fleeing Robert Mugabe's increasingly repressive regime and South African citizens who blamed them for crime and unemployment, PASSOP has since become a leading advocate for human rights in South Africa. Staffed by volunteers and funded primarily through donations and a grant from Solidarity Peace Trust, PASSOP has had a large impact on the debate around the situation of documented and undocumented immigrants in South Africa, vowing to be a “voice for the voiceless.” [CITE]
OUTLINE:
Work around queue; protest against Home Affairs corruption
History of Xenophobic violence, leading up to May 2008.
PASSOP’s response.
Coalition building—TAC, SAHRC, Black Sash, UNHCR, SA government organizations. ALP, LRC, UCT Law Clinic.
Zimfest
Current Protests
PASSOP has held several protests which have led to a substantial increase in the number of applications processed by Cape Town’s Department of Home Affairs. Moreover, PASSOP has successfully lobbied for clean water taps, bins and portable toilets to be placed at Cape Town’s Refugee Centre (where between 600 and 1,000 people live and sleep outside on any given day while waiting in the queue to put in their asylum application). Before PASSOP began its protest action, the situation at the Refugee Centre was so bad that Adonis Mosatu starved to death while waiting in the queue. PASSOP then launched the Adonis Mosatu project, which feeds several hundred people every week; it is now an independent project which we support. PASSOP continues to organize public protests about the living conditions of refugees in South Africa and the oppression and human rights violations of the families and people left behind by immigrants.
Refugees have come together within PASSOP in order to speak out about the conditions which they left behind and the conditions in which they now live in South Africa. PASSOP works closely with community leaders in the Zimbabwean, Congolese and Somali community structures to address issues, concerns and problems facing refugees and immigrants within Cape Town. PASSOP is also working with students, and has established a student organization at the University of Cape Town- UCT PASSOP. Together, we believe that we have an opportunity to influence South Africa on issues relating to immigrant populations. We have in common the dreams shared by many oppressed – those of freedom, of peace, of freedom of expression and most importantly those of equality.
PASSOP maintains that definitions of refugees and asylum seekers need to be reformulated to take into account breadline refugees. The situation in Zimbabwe is so appalling that people must choose between leaving their homes in search of a means of survival or remaining at home to starve. The economic condition in Zimbabwe is so extreme it constitutes a humanitarian crisis. People in Zimbabwe are so destitute that many are below the breadline, meaning they cannot even afford basic food and are therefore driven out of their own country, seeking subsistence survival in South Africa and other Southern Africa nations. PASSOP wants to make the South African public aware of the lack of choice people have in their decisions to cross the border. PASSOP is against all xenophobic attacks on immigrants and maintains that the right to freedom and dignity is one of all persons residing in South Africa, whether here legally or illegally. PASSOP has made their disappointment with South African foreign policy known through the media and public protests. PASSOP continues to demand immediate improvement in the services provided to refugees and asylum seekers by the Department of Home Affairs.[1]
External References
[1] History of Passop
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