A/HRC/17/33/Add.4 deported 1.7 million undocumented migrants to neighbouring States, such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho. In 2006 alone, 260,000 migrants were arrested and deported.2 5. The lack of reliable statistics regarding international migration, however, allows for rumours and assumptions to take hold. It is estimated that there are approximately between 1.6 and 2 million foreign citizens in South Africa, the majority of them Zimbabweans, including people with valid permits, asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants,3 or 3 to 4 per cent of the total population - a figure considerably lower than other African countries and countries of destination for migrants. Contrary to popular belief therefore, migration is far less numerically significant. III. Normative and institutional framework for the protection of the human rights of migrants A. International legal framework 6. South Africa is party to a number of core international human rights treaties, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, as well as the optional protocols to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 7. South Africa is yet to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. 8. South Africa has ratified the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the protocol thereto, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97) and the Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143) of the International Labour Organization (ILO). 9. Since joining the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1994, South Africa has adhered to the OAU Charter and to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Finally, the Protocol on the Facilitation of Movement of Persons of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) (to which South Africa is a party) envisages the progressive facilitation of movement in the SADC region through the introduction of free visas and the right of the region’s citizens to work and establish themselves freely. 2 3 Jonathan Crush, Southern African Migration Project, July 2008. Available from www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?ID=689. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “Flow of asylum-seekers to South Africa grows in 2006”, 2 February 2007, available from www.unhcr.org/cgibin/texis/vtx/newsitem?id=45c35d1c4. 5