Refugee rights activists are calling for a clear distinction between refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants.
Civil society groups, migrant communities and human rights activists gathered in Cape Town on Saturday to mark World Refugee Day and educate people about their rights.
Leaders of organisations representing refugees and asylum seekers say not all foreign nationals in South Africa should carry the same label.
They criticised the targeting of undocumented migrants, saying this fails to recognise the different categories of migrants.
Some participants at the gathering said migrants are being exploited as cheap labour, often working in unsafe conditions and for low wages due to their immigration status.
Civil society leader Flory Tshimbalanga-Kabambi says anyone can be a foreigner, but people are different.
“There are people who’ve got documentation in terms of section 24; there are those with section 22, those with section 27, and there’s PR (permanent residence). When you see people out there, everyone puts people under one basket, which is not supposed to be done. People need to have knowledge to know who is a refugee, who is an asylum seeker and who is a migrant. That’s what the session today is for; we just want to bring across to a lot of South Africans that there is a difference. You have to know that now. When you hear that word, ‘refugee’, it means you yourself might be a refugee without knowing it means ‘people on the move’.”.
Tshimbalanga-Kabambi added that many South Africans who move within the country for better economic or educational opportunities could also be considered refugees.