A/HRC/17/33/Add.4 improve the situation of unaccompanied minors residing in the country, and provide them with the rights to which they are entitled. 71. The Special Rapporteur expressed concern about the lack of information on the situation of unaccompanied children. To date, there are no exact figures on, for example, how many minors actually live in the country, where they reside or what their main challenges are. The Special Rapporteur therefore encourages the Government of South Africa to provide accurate data regarding the situation of children as well as on the measures taken to ensure their rights. Another concern relating to the lack of information is the fact that many children enter South Africa without documents, which makes it even more difficult for them to receive adequate help in health care, schooling and living conditions. The Special Rapporteur urges the Government to provide information on how many minors are undocumented and to facilitate providing them with legal documents. 72. The Special Rapporteur reminds the Government of South Africa about the principle of non-deportation of unaccompanied children, underlined on many previous occasions, and about the particularly vulnerable situation of children, who often have nothing to return to in their country of origin. Furthermore, children should be repatriated only if it is in their best interest, namely, for the purpose of family reunification and after due process of law. Finally, the Special Rapporteur recalls that, in previous reports,15 he called for the need to protect children in the context of migration, and especially migrant children moving across borders, with practical recommendations for consideration and action by States and other stakeholders. VI. Conclusions and recommendations 73. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government of South Africa for its invitation and for facilitating the visit, which allowed him to conduct meetings with all the authorities requested, civil society and the United Nations country team, as well as to conduct interviews with migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers. Despite the efforts made to protect migrants, including by providing assistance to migrants and their families, and recognizing that South Africa has taken measures to protect migrants, such as the process of regularizing Zimbabwean migrants, addressing the xenophobic attacks against migrants in townships and striving to alleviate the impact of the recent economic crisis, the Special Rapporteur noted that a number of challenges still need to be addressed, in particular the absence of a clear and comprehensive immigration policy, the lack of data and statistics, the question of detention of foreign nationals, access to health-care services and the situation of unaccompanied foreign children. In this context, the Special Rapporteur makes the recommendations below. 74. With regard to the legislative, institutional and policy framework, the Special Rapporteur recommends that the Government of South Africa ratify: (a) The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (as soon as the legal implications of such ratification have been addressed); (b) The Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. 15 For example, see A/HRC/11/7. 17