Synopsis of National Security Crisis in Democratic Republic of Congo - A Push Factor to Forced Migration

The study was conducted in Limpopo Province, Musina, which is located in the northern part of South Africa. This qualitative study aimed at finding out how threats to national security encourage forced migration. The researcher conducted interviews with refugees from Democratic Republic of Congo. Illegal immigrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo participated in this qualitative study whereby the researcher conducted a focus group discussion with immigrants. There was a gender mix in this group discussion, however, the males dominated because there is a large number of males immigrants as compared to females. The issue of security is a serious concern to the people of DRC. The majority of the illegal immigrants from DRC who are found in Musina left their home country because of a lack of security and protection from their government. The immigrants are of the view and opinion that the leadership of the country does not care about their safety. Moreover, the immigrants were forced to join the rebels in their country at a very young age, hence they decided to leave. National security threat is one of the push factors that make civilians want to flee their own country to neighbouring countries. The immigrants from DRC do not wish to go back home, they found a new home in South Africa. However, there are some challenges that they experience and they found them to be better because they are not life-threatening challenges. This was expected because they are in a foreign land. Findings from this study reveal that the lack of commitment by the government to ensure that there is safety in DRC is the contributing factor to push migration