“The non-responsiveness by Home Affairs left no room for us to engage with them” By Tariro Washinyira The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) is asking the Western Cape High Court to order the Department of Home Affairs to commit to a deadline to reopen its Cape Town Refugee Reception Office. The legal battle between refugee organisations and Home Affairs began in 2012 when Home Affairs closed...

Department has to process 150,000 appeals By Zoë Postman The Department of Home Affairs has approached the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) to help it clear the 150,000 backlog of refugee status appeals, according to Director of Asylum Seekers, Mandla Madumisa. Madumisa was speaking at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on Thursday. The SAHRC subpoenaed Acting Director General of...

Asylum delayed is not (necessarily) asylum denied By Ohene Yaw Ampofo-Anti If a foreign national arrives in South Africa unlawfully and takes as long as 15 months to apply for asylum, are they barred from doing so? Is the person liable for deportation or should they be given an opportunity to at least apply for asylum? The Constitutional Court recently considered these...

“The courts had spoken. We had to do it,” says Deputy Minister of Home Affairs By GroundUp correspondent The Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office was officially re-opened on Friday by Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba. The province has been without such a facility since Home Affairs unilaterally closed it in 2011. Following years of legal action, public outcry and civil society activism,...