Despite there being inequality in South Africa, migrants from across the continent would rather seek livelihood there than risk immigrating to Europe.
In fact, South Africa has 1.5 million to 3.2 million migrants, and two thirds of them come from elsewhere on the continent – mainly neighbouring countries but also from as far away as Eritrea and Morocco – according to an AFKInsider report. Meanwhile, of the world’s 17 million displaced Africans, the vast majority are in Africa while only around 3% are in Europe.
According to Eurostat, just two African countries were among the top 10 source countries for refugees applying for asylum in Europe in 2015: Eritrea was 7th and Nigeria came 8th. However, South Africa has the highest number of pending asylum claims in the world, with more than 1 million people waiting to be processed.
