Protecting the health care rights of refugees: Some legal perspectives from the republic of South Africa

This chapter analyses the protection of health care rights of refugees in the Republic of South Africa from a legal point of view. It does that with a particular focus on the key concepts (i.e. ‘health’ and ‘refugee’); the right to health as contained in the Constitution of South Africa, 1996; international and regional instruments; and pertinent domestic laws such as the National Health Act 61 of 2003, the Refugees Act 130 of 1998, and the National Health Insurance Bill of 21 June 2018. This is followed by a discussion of issues and challenges facing refugees in their quest to access health services in South Africa. These issues and challenges include an imperfect public service and expensive private service; limited ability to enforce the right to health care and related fundamental rights (e.g. access to courts); language barriers; lack of access to information; and ignorance and xenophobia.