Most of the world's people would welcome refugees into their countries with open arms‚ but South Africans are somewhat reluctant when compared with the global average. These are the findings of human rights organisation Amnesty International's first Refugees Welcome Index published on Thursday.The survey asked more than 27‚000 people in 27 countries about their willingness to let refugees live in their countries‚ towns‚ neighbourhoods and homes on a sliding scale.According to Amnesty International‚ 80% of the participants said they were happy to receive refugees into their countries.Of the 27 surveyed nations‚ South Africa ranked at 20th place with a score of 44%.In Russia more than a third of its citizens said they would deny refugees access to their country.China was the most welcoming country‚ scoring 85%.In 20 of the 27 countries‚ more than 75% of people said they would welcome refugees into their country.“These figures speak for themselves. People are ready to make refugees welcome‚ but governments’ inhumane responses to the refugee crisis are badly out of touch with the views of their own citizens‚” said Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty.“Governments cannot allow their response to the refugee crisis to be held hostage by headlines. Too often they use xenophobic anti-refugee rhetoric to chase approval ratings. This survey suggests they are not listening to the silent majority of welcoming citizens who take the refugee crisis personally‚” he said.In June last year the Western Cape High Court criticised the Department of Home Affairs for its “systematic failure to comply with its procedural obligations” relating to an application for refugee status by Kennedy Tshiyombo from the Democratic Republic of Congo.The court ordered that Tshiyombo be given refugee status after the department had rejected his application.Advocate Suzanna Harvey‚ who represented Tshiyombo‚ said the department had acted “irrationally” in its decision to reject Tshiyombo’s application.At the time the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town's spokesperson‚ Corey Johnson‚ said Tshiyombo's case is not an isolated incident...