Refugee And Migrant Rights Project Programme News
25 August 2010
(Press release)
Press Release - 25 August 2010
The advent of the removal of children begging in the streets in Tshwane, some accompanying adults has the public raging with dissent. Jo’burg Child Welfare (JCW) has the following comments on this issue:
“We note that such children are exposed to a great many hazards and that there is an urgent need for intervention to improve their...
24 August 2010
(News)
By Simon Mundy in Kya Sands
Bright Magomora took no chances when a crowd gathered outside his small shop, hammering on the walls with sticks and shouting that he should go home to Zimbabwe.
"I ran away," says Mr Magomora, who had spent five years in the South African shanty town of Kya Sands, north of Johannesburg. "They wanted to beat me up or kill me, saying that we foreigners...
22 August 2010
(News)
Daar is nuwe hoop vir die blinde Zimbabwiese vrou wie se baba deur wetstoepassers uit haar arms geruk is terwyl sy op ’n straathoek gebedel het. Die beeldmateriaal van die getraumatiseerde vrou en haar huilende baba (18 maande) het lesers die afgelope week aangegryp en fel kritiek van menseregtegroepe ontlok. Die vrou se ander kind (4) is ook by haar afgeneem.
Rapport het gister...
19 August 2010
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the Centre for Child Law (CCL) at the University of Pretoria will approach the North Gauteng High Court today at 14:00 to seek an urgent order for the release of three children from unlawful custody by state officials, most notably from the Department of Social Development (DSD).
On a terrifying Friday 13 August 2010, several state agencies including the...
12 August 2010
(News)
The squatters' shacks were burnt down by the Tshwane Metro Police on July 21. With the assistance of Lawyers for Human Rights, the squatters took the council to court.
Acting Pretoria high court judge Jody Kollapen ordered the municipality to erect temporary shelter for the squatters. Judge Kollapen ruled against the municipality's plan to move the squatters to a site in Struben Street, near...
10 May 2010
(Press release)
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) welcomes today’s acquittal of Deputy Agriculture Minister-Designate and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Treasurer-General, Senator Roy Bennett on spurious charges of insurgency, banditry, terrorism and sabotage leveled against him last October.
On Monday 10 May 2010 High Court Judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu freed Bennett after ruling that the...
4 May 2010
(Press release)
We, the undersigned, condemn the Australian government’s decision to suspend its processing of all applications for asylum from individuals from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, for three and six months respectively.
The Suspension Policy is predicated on a profound misreading of the current situation in Sri Lanka and in Afghanistan. It plainly violates Australia’s human rights...
19 March 2010
(Press release)
The Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday 17th March ordered the immediate release of a family of eight asylum seekers who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan, after more than four months in detention and numerous attempts by Home Affairs to illegally return them to Afghanistan. The two parents, their five minor children, and the oldest daughter’s fiancé, also a minor, were arrested...
25 February 2010
(Press release)
The Supreme Court of Appeal gave a scathing rebuke to the Department of Home Affairs on Wednesday and ordered the immediate release of an Ethiopian asylum seeker who has been detained at the Lindela Repatriation Centre for more than 275 days.
The appellant is an ethnic Oromo who was in prison in Ethiopia because of his role as an Oromo Liberation Front political activist. He first sought...
15 January 2010
(News)
Johannesburg - Thirty-nine foreign nationals, including mothers with young children, were arrested for loitering in the Johannesburg inner city, police said on Thursday. Inspector Gordon Billing said the people, mostly from Malawi and Zimbabwe, were arrested near the Johannesburg Central Methodist Church and the High Court on Wednesday.
"The Johannesburg central crime prevention made...