It is incumbent upon us, as a free nation, to recognise political refugees and offer them asylum.

That is why we have called this conference today.

This forum provides an opportunity for refugees in our city to discuss their experiences.

It offers them a chance to discuss the challenges they face.

And it offers us, as government, the chance to let them know how we can help, and what our limitations are.

Many of the people who are seeking asylum here have been displaced due to their political beliefs or because of serious political conflict.

Many have experienced physical threats and violence, and also the emotional trauma of being separated from their families and homes.

We must ensure that we live up to our constitutional and humanitarian responsibility to acknowledge and assist them.

To this end we will be adopting a draft declaration of refugee rights at this conference.

This declaration reflects international codes, and affords refugees the same rights as all South Africans. The only exception to this is the right to vote.

The declaration will help ensure that we offer fair treatment to all legitimate refugees.

It also highlights the right of refugees to speedy and corruption free processing by the Home Affairs Department.

This must be granted so that their status as refugees can be established.

And it must be granted regardless of the political beliefs held by the individuals concerned.

Without efficient regulation, law-abiding asylum seekers will suffer, while illegal immigrants and cross-border criminals will take the gap and benefit at our expense.

And it is clear that we need to avoid making refugees permanent asylum seekers.

Unfortunately, even our own citizens don’t have access to speedy processing at home affairs yet.

And that raises the obvious but difficult question: how do we balance our responsibility to refugees with the responsibility we have to people already living in South Africa?

Because, when we look around us, we see that many South Africans live like refugees in their own country.

As a result, those escaping confrontation and violence in other countries can find themselves victims once again when they enter our borders.

With the ranks of refugees swelling in our city, and with a general scarcity of resources, xenophobia inevitably becomes a problem.

Refugees are sometimes branded as cross-border drug dealers or accused of ‘stealing’ jobs from local communities,

So I hope that today’s conference will help to generate greater understanding and dialogue around why refugees come to the city, and how they fit in.

And in the process we must also remember that in many cases we benefit from their decision to make Cape Town their new home.

Refugees often bring valuable skills and vibrant cultural diversity to our city.

The exhibition we will be opening later today provides but one example of this.

In some cases, refugees start businesses and create jobs for South Africans as well.

We must therefore recognize and welcome the contributions that these individuals make.

At the same time, we must also continue building partnerships with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Consular Corps, and other organisations so that we are better able to address the challenges around refugees and asylum seekers.