UN supports ECOWAS decision to refer SA migration issues to AU

The United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has welcomed a decision by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to refer issues around undocumented migration in South Africa to the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government. Speaking exclusively to SABC News, Mohammed called the developments around migration on the continent, and in South Africa in particular, emotional and painful. She says, "This is very emotional; it's full of a lot of pain.

It is to many, forgetting that as brothers and sisters, we leaned into the fight against apartheid. So people thought of the solidarity, and you know, is this the dividend for that investment? I think perhaps a lack of recognition that there's a lot of pain and emotion in this, and you've got to deal with that, but you can get to the table, and you can begin to find a permanent solution to migration, to xenophobia, whatever we want to call it.

It has to come to an end. We cannot treat each other that way in Africa, in the way that we have always projected ubuntu (humanity), in the way that we have always projected that we are our brothers or our sisters' keepers. Mohammed says the discussion at the recent Ecowas Summit in Sierra Leone was emotional on the issue of migration and South Africa.

She says, "I have to tell you the emotion: I was there at a course, and I think the emotion that was there requires a reaction that will bring us together, and I think that the whole ask of let's take this to the AU is an incredibly important one, that's our town hall for Africa. VIDEO | Interview with UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed:.