IOM SUBMISSION TO THE COMMITTEE ON THE PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF ALL MIGRANTS WORKERS AND MEMBERS OF THEIR FAMILIES
ANGOLA
GENERAL INFORMATION AND MIGRATION ISSUES
After the Independence of Angola in November 1975, many Angolans emigrated to different countries, mainly to neighboring States as a result of war and poverty. Currently the country is not only receiving back the former Angolan refugees wishing to return but is also attracting different types of migrants from a wide arrayof countries. According to data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through its Office of Communities, Angola has about 82,402 emigrants, with the largest bulk of themresiding in Portugal.
With the Angolan economy and natural wealth serving as a pull factor, the prevention of irregular migration is at the top of the Government agenda. This is a considerable challenge for Angola which has an area of 1,246.700 km², with a land border of 5,198 km, including 2,511 km of border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (of which a 225 km border alongthe discontinued Provinceof Cabinda); a border of 201 km with the Republic of Congo, one of 1,376 km with the Republic of Namibia; and one of 1,110 km on the border along Zambia.
In addition, the country is only in its early stage of development with a system for managing migration in conformity with international standards and fully integrated in the international and regional contexts that are scrupulously differentiated between asylum seekers and refugees from one side and irregular migrants to the other.
In the field of migration, Angola has made some notable efforts such as in empowering their employees and public servants, the Immigration service, Border Guard Police, Criminal Investigation, the Department of Justice and others that deal directly or indirectly with migration issues in order to better manage migration-related cases according to international standards, as well as improving border management and combating trafficking in persons; facilitating the management of regular migration and providing reintegration assistance to the migrants.
Rich in natural resources of oil and diamonds, Angola has been experiencing since the end of the civil war in 2002, an economic boom and has become an increasingly strong magnet for irregular migrants as well as a transit corridor for those heading southward towards South Africa. The mostly porous borders and inadequate border control capacitymake them easily and repeatedly violated.
SELECTED ISSUES CONCERNING IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVENTION
Articles 2, 6, 7, 9, and 10
Angola is a State Party to the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights. The constitution of Angola protects all migrants that are legally in Angola.
Angola faces an irregular migration influx not seen since the end of the civil war, and with its economic growth, many of these migrants in particular from the DRC and West Africa are looking for a better life across borders and devoting themselvesto artisanaland informal mining in the northeastern provinces. Due to lack of a comprehensive migration policy,many of these irregular migrants have been reported by various local and international non-governmental organizations, to be subjected to degrading treatments at the time of their arrests, during detention and during their expulsion. The existence of Immigrant Detention Centers, where the migrants remain before being expelled at least 48 hours without hygienic and human conditions are transported in open and unsafe trucks is an illustration of these mistreatments.
Weekly, the local media report the capture and the expulsion of irregular migrants by the authority, mainly within and from the border provinces of Cabinda, Cunene, Zaire and Lunda Norte.
Angola is a country receiving refugees. In 2007 the National Assembly adopted the Law 2/2007 on repealing immigration law 3/94 of 31 January. In regards to asylum terms the Law 2/2007 is more protective as follows:
Article 12(3)
After the United Nations declared the cessation clause of the Angolan refugee status, there was a mobilization by the Government of Angola in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration to start the second phase of the Voluntary Repatriationprogramme.
In early 2011, there were 137,918 registered Angolan refugees in neighboring countries, of which 53,370 expressed to UNHCR their willingness to returnto Angola in the planned repatriation exercise. Coming to a close in June 2012, the repatriation reached 23,343 individuals, or around 45% of those willing to return, leaving many thousands of them in a precarious legal and statutory condition.
In Angola, the newly returned have been receivingall documents enabling their integration into Angolan society, although some of them did not receive the documents in time. This can potentially create some constraints in their future interaction with the local administrations of the State.Apart from the documentation they were alsogiven some in-kind reintegration assistance, consisting mostly of staple food and daily wares.
The authorities showed repeated concern about the situation of the remaining ones who were unable to return within the stipulated period, and several high level diplomatic visits have been made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to those countries. Issue of sustainable integration –both for those returned to Angola and those decided to remain in the countries of asylum, and particular for women and children – remain to be a major humanitarian and developmental concern for years to come.
Article 8
Regarding the counter-trafficking legislation in the country, Angola does not have a specific law prohibiting trafficking nor does the penal code criminalize trafficking, but that the Constitution promulgated in February 2010 (Article 60) which prohibits the practice of hideous and violent crimes such as human trafficking.
Angola has signed the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (to which the Palermo protocols are attached), but has not ratified it. Nonetheless, Angola through resolution 21/10 of 22 June, of the National Assembly passed the resolution to ratify the UN Convention and its two additional Protocols such as: Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children (Palermo Protocol) and the Protocol against the Smuggling of migrants by Land, Sea and Air.
In terms of common law there is no specific law to combat human trafficking, but the current penal code provides the sanction of some facts that embodies as within the group of trafficking crimes such as: Falsification of documents Article 216 with a punishment from 2 to 8 years imprisonment, Captivity, Article 328, Fraudulent or violent subtraction of minor of 7 years, Article 342 both punishable from 2 to 8 years imprisonment.
However the draft Penal Code already provides greater coverage with facts defined as human trafficking crime.
The Law 2/07 of 31 August, on the Legal Regime of Foreigners in the Republic of Angola (Immigration Law), predicts crimes using illegal hand labor, migration aiding among others.
Angola has been placed on Tier 2 Watch List for a second consecutive year, though it was recognized that some efforts were made to comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, According to the US State Department issued its 2012 Trafficking in Person Report, Angola is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Angolans are reportedly forced to labor in agriculture, construction, domestic service, and artisanal diamond within the country. Among the recommendations provided by the TiP report are also refer to draft a national action plan in order to coordinate and pace government´s anti-trafficking efforts over the coming year; amend the penal code to prohibit and punish all forms of human trafficking among others.
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