A considerable number of clients seeking SAQA’s foreign qualification evaluation services are refugees and asylum seekers and other displaced persons who do not necessarily migrate to South Africa by choice. They face unique challenges in meeting SAQA’s application criteria requirements for recognition. These challenges include the inability to present copies of qualification documents which in turn compromises the SAQA verification processes. In addition, the SAQA verification can possibly lead to security risks for the refugee. Finally, SAQA has evidence to reflect that due to the above challenges some refugees resort to misrepresentation of their qualifications which leads to dire ramifications. SAQA has been monitoring and tracking all these challenges since 2013.
Over the last few years SAQA has undertaken significant policy amendments that focuses on enabling better recognition of the qualifications of refugees and asylum seekers. An important contribution in this regard is the ratification of the Addis Convention by South Africa in 2019, of which SAQA is an implementing partner. In 2021, SAQA as the designated South African implementing agency of the Addis Convention provision signed a partnership agreement with the World Education Services (WES) to ensure eligible refugees and displaced individuals can have their qualifications assessed and recognized in South Africa.
This agreement took the form of a pilot initiative that began in January 2022- January 2023. Important learning emerged from this pilot initiative which has been shared at several national and global platforms, and with the active engagement of representatives from WES. A unique format of these presentations was combining ‘discussions’ with ‘visual and audio narratives’ shared by the refugees and asylum seekers themselves. The video below was developed by SAQA with the help of media interns. This video has been screened in a number of international platforms.
