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Cape Town - The large numbers of migrants entering SA indicated the country's need for their skills, the United Nations human rights rapporteur told MPs on Monday.
Because SA is a developing country, it must realise and accept that its demand for skilled labour will swell the number of migrant workers who cross its borders, Jorge Bustamante told the parliamentary portfolio committee on home affairs.
"One must not be myopic about this. The movement of labour is directly linked to the supply and demand for skills," he said.
Bustamante, in reply to questions and statements from MPs, also said that as a developing state SA would need people with specialised skills, such as engineers, to fill gaps until some kind of parity was reached.
"The demand for labour in a developing country is directly related to the numbers of undocumented migrants in that country. We have seen here, and in other countries, that there is some resistance to this idea, but it is a fact," he said.
While South Africa has a fine constitution, its handling of illegal migrants is not up to par, Bustamante said. He added that there was a "general lack of data" when it came to the human rights of migrants.
"The fact that there are so many undocumented immigrants in South Africa already, makes South Africa behind the realities of international migration. And that is something that is very much in contrast with the fine, exemplary level of the constitution of South Africa."
Bustamante said this was particularly the case with regard to the labour rights of those "that are coming... undocumented to SA, that are not dealt with (in accordance) with the corresponding international standards".
He is on a fact-finding mission to South Africa, at the invitation of the government. He arrived on January 24 and his visit ends on Tuesday.
He will present a final report on his findings to the UN's Human Rights Council in June this year.
Bustamante urged MPs to recognise and measure the scale of undocumented migrant labour in South Africa.