Home Affairs responds to LHR's complaint to the Public Protector
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) jointly and on behalf of a collective of civil society organisations, last week submitted a complaint to the Office of the Public Protector over the refusal by the Department of Home Affairs to extend the deadline for new applications to the Zimbabwe Documentation Project.
The Public Protector Adv. Thuli Madonsela has responded by raising these concerns with the Director General of Home Affairs, Mkuseli Apleni on the 14th December. DHA has taken note of these concerns and invited all the concerned organisations to a briefing on the 14th December. At this briefing Home Affairs confirmed that there would be no extension of the deadline. More importantly however, they announced that they would not start deportations immediately after the deadline.
Home Affairs at the briefing session outlined the following process and changes which they have made to accommodate our concerns in the regularisation process:
- There will be no extension of the 31 December deadline. No applications will be received after the deadline.
- The 31 December is a deadline only for submissions. Zimbabwean applicants can submit forms up to midnight on the 31st December. DHA will be closed only for Christmas day and Boxing day and will remain open every day until 10pm.
- DHA is prepared to receive incomplete applications and applicants will be able to supplement these applications with the required documents in 2011.
- Zimbabweans who are still waiting for their passports from the Zimbabwean Consulate may submit the passport application receipt indicating that the passport was applied for. This will be accepted in lieu of a passport.
- People with no birth certificates/identity documents or other relevant documentation may also submit a receipt from the Zimbabwean Consulate indicating that they have applied for the relevant document with a view to applying for a passport.
- Zimbabweans whose applications have been rejected will not be deported until they have exhausted the appeal process. Appeals may be lodged with the Director General of Home Affairs
- In responding to the issue of congestion and long queues at DHA offices, DHA will no longer be taking finger prints in an attempt to speed up the application process. The application forms will also be made available online so that applicants no longer have to queue up to receive this form and then return on another day to submit the application.
- Vendors/Informal traders who require a trading licence may submit an affidavit commissioned by a police officer indicating the details of their trading business ie. where they have been trading, how long they have been trading at that location and what items they are trading in etc.
- DHA has set up offices in locations where there is a high density of foreign farm workers in an attempt to assist them to apply for these permits. This process is already underway and DHA offices have been set up in the Eastern Cape, North West, Limpopo and KZN.
DHA is stressing that application forms must be submitted by 31 December. Any Zimbabwean who does not submit an application form by the deadline will not be considered for a permit under this dispensation. It is also a requirement that Zimbabweans who have submitted applications may not leave the country until their applications have been adjudicated. This however, will be a problem to Zimbabweans who have already left the country and for those who do not receive these instructions before they leave the country. From 28th December, police and immigration officials will be at the Home Affairs offices to assist with the large numbers of people who are expected to try to lodge applications before the deadline.
In light of the changes which were announced yesterday, it appears that DHA is making an effort to assist Zimbabweans, even those who do not yet have the required documents, to lodge applications before the deadline. It remains to be seen whether this will be sufficient.
DHA appears to be resolute on the issue of the deadline and it may very well be that the new changes to accommodate applications have arrived too late. DHA’s briefing did not deal with all the issues which we raised in our complaint to the Public Protector and these challenges remain. We still do not have any clarity on the position of asylum seekers who gave up their permits in order to apply for the ZDP permits. If they are rejected they would have no status and it is unclear whether they may return to the asylum process.
Access to Zimbabwean passports continues to remain a problem which has not been adequately addressed.
According to Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh at Lawyers for Human Rights, “We certainly hope that the state will be able to achieve the objectives and purposes of the project. However we are not convinced that in the short space of time which is left this is possible”. Ramjathan-Keogh added, “We remain concerned that the extremely short timeframes for such a large project may be used as a smokescreen for starting up large scale deportations again. We note DHA’s commitment that they will not start deportations immediately after the deadline, but ask for DHA to issue instructions to SAPS in this regard to prevent unlawful arrests and deportations from occurring”.
LHR has been invited to a meeting with DHA next week at the behest of the Public Protector in order to discuss the issues raised in the complaint.
LHR would like to express its gratitude to Adv. Thuli Madonsela, The Public Protector for her prompt response to our complaint and for her timeous interventions with DHA on the concerns which we raised.
The following organisations have endorsed the request to the Public Protector (in alphabetical order):
1. Black Sash Trust
2. Centre for Child Law, University of Pretoria
3. Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR)
4. Coordinating Body for the Refugee Community (CBRC)
5. Community Media Trust
6. Lawyers for Human Rights
7. Movement for Democratic Change (SA External Assembly)
8. Musina Legal Advice Office
9. Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Law Clinic
10. PASSOP
11. Probono.org
12. Refugee Ministries Centre
13. Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town
14. Section 27 Incorporating the Aids Law Project
15. Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI)
16. Treatment Action Campaign
17. University of Witwatersrand Law Clinic
18. Zimbabwe Political Victims Association (ZIPOVA)
19. Jesuit Refugee Services
20. People Opposing Woman Abuse
21. Sophiatown Counselling Centre
22. Johannesburg Child Advocacy Forum (JCAF)
For more information, please contact:
Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh Jacob van Garderen
Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme Lawyers for Human Rights
Lawyers for Human Rights 012-320-2943 /
011-339-1960