Since the late 1980s, there has been a marked shift in refugee policies in Africa, which became particularly pronounced in the 1990s. While the refugee problem has on the whole increased, African states have become less committed to asylum. Instead of opening their doors to persons fearing harm in their own states, African countries now prefer refugees to receive protection in "safe zones" or similar areas within their countries of origin. African states now routinely reject refugees at the frontier or return them to their countries of origin even if the conditions from which they have fled still persist. Refugees who manage to enter and remain in host countries receive "pseudoasylum". Their physical security, dignity and material safety are not guaranteed. As for solutions, African states are less inclined to grant local settlement or resettlement opportunities to refugees. What they seem to prefer is repatriation at the earliest opportunity, regardless of the situation in the countries of origin. This paper examines the evolution of refugee policies in Africa from the period when the continent pursued an open door policy until 1998, by which time most countries had become less committed to asylum. It attempts to identify reasons for the policy shift and to make recommendations as to what measures could be taken to enable African countries to continue to deal with the refugee problem in a principled way.

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immigration policy Africa refugee policy strategy asylum seeker