In the media
|
23 June 2015
SAFM
You may need: Adobe Flash Player. Lawyers for Human Rights launch a high court challenge against the manner in which Operation Fiela-Reclaim is being conducted across the country. Following xenophobic attacks, President Zuma appointed a team to deal with issues of migration. The committee responded by instituting operation Fiela to restore law and order. Lawyers for Human Rights want this practice done within the confines of the law. Operation Fiela has seen foreigners targetted and arrested in their homes in the early hours by police and military officials supported by immigration officers from home affairs.
|
25 June 2015
Mail & Guardian Online
Stereotypes and myths have largely informed South Africans’ views on issues of migration and foreign nationals. These myths perpetuate xenophobia in South Africa and are used seemingly as a basis for policy decisions around migration.
Extensive research by institutions such as the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) and African Centre for Migration and Society has gone a long way in dispelling these myths.
|
|
23 June 2015
Mail & Guardian Online
A police crackdown on foreigners—initially framed as a response to xenophobia—was violating both the law and constitutional rights, Laywers for Human Rights (LHR) told the high court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
LHR, which has a strong focus on the rights of migrants, is challenging the way in which Operation Fiela is being conducted.
|
23 June 2015
SAFM
You may need: Adobe Flash Player. The High Court in Pretoria has struck the application by Lawyers for Human Rights against Operation Fiela from the court roll. Judge Jan Hiemstra has ruled that LHR should carry the costs. The group was seeking a court order declaring government's Operation Fiela unlawful and unconstitutional. Fiela is a national operation by the police, the SANDF, the army and Home Affairs officials that often involves searching of premises. LHR lawyer Paul Kennedy argued that the operation was being conducted without search warrants.
|
|
23 June 2015
SAFM
You may need: Adobe Flash Player. Lawyers for Human Rights launch a high court challenge against the manner in which Operation Fiela-Reclaim is being conducted across the country. Following xenophobic attacks, President Zuma appointed a team to deal with issues of migration. The committee responded by instituting operation Fiela to restore law and order. Lawyers for Human Rights want this practice done within the confines of the law. Operation Fiela has seen foreigners targetted and arrested in their homes in the early hours by police and military officials supported by immigration officers from home affairs.
|
23 June 2015
Pretoria News
The lawfulness of Operation Fiela-Reclaim will come under the spotlight in the high court in Pretoria on Tuesday, with Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) challenging the way in which operations had been conducted across the country.
LHR will ask for an urgent interdict preventing any further operations by the police and the defence force without obtaining the necessary warrants.
|
|
23 June 2015
Eyewitness News
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) will approach the High Court in Pretoria today to challenge the legality of Operation Fiela.
The anti-crime operation was launched after xenophobic attacks erupted earlier this year, but the initiative has come in for some criticism with some labelling it anti-immigrant.
Last month LHR filed an urgent court application seeking access to foreigners who were arrested.
|
23 June 2015
GroundUp
Is Operation Fiela lawful? Judge Jan Hiemstra in the North Gauteng High Court will hear argument today from Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) that it isn’t.
LHR is seeking an order “against the way in which Operation Fiela-Reclaim is being conducted across the country.”
|
|
24 June 2015
News24
An attempt to have aspects of the controversial Operation Fiela declared unlawful and unconstitutional heard as an urgent matter was struck off the roll at the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday.
Judge Jan Hiemstra said that after having carefully read the papers and listening to argument by the applicants, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), and the government, which included the ministers in the Presidency, Home Affairs, Defence and Police and the chief of the SANDF, he had decided that the matter was not urgent.
|
24 June 2015
Pretoria News
Operation Fiela-Reclaim can go ahead with its crime-fighting operations after Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) failed in its urgent application in the High Court in Pretoria to interdict the authorities from carrying out raids without a search warrant.
Judge Jan Hiemstra removed the matter from the roll on Tuesday, finding that it was not urgent.
He also slapped LHR with the hefty legal bill.
Operation Fiela-Reclaim has been in effect across the country since April.
|