HOME AFFAIRS PREVENTS REFUGEES FROM APPLYING FOR ASYLUM
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) has noted the Department of Home Affairs’ continued efforts to unlawfully prevent refugees from submitting applications for asylum at the country’s refugee reception offices. In terms of a recent policy change, new applicants for asylum will be required to produce an Asylum Transit Permit, which should be available at border posts, when they submit an application for asylum at refugee reception offices located in Musina, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town. This requirement is in contravention of the Refugees Act which does not prescribe such permits as a precondition to make an application of asylum. Compounding the problem is the fact that that this Asylum Transit Permit is not being issued at the main point of entry at Beitbridge (on the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe). Immigration at Beitbridge have taken a decision not to issue this permit to newly arrived asylum seekers, yet the Refugee Reception Offices around the country continue to demand this document before they will allow access.
We have further observed that police road blocks in the Limpopo Province are screening the immigration status of all foreigners travelling out of Limpopo and arresting persons who may be trying to seek protection as asylum seekers. These persons are being summarily deported. Home Affairs is actively refusing entry to asylum seekers and removing any persons who have been unable to lodge asylum applications on entry. Their policy is directed at exclusion rather than protection which flies in the face of South Africa’s international commitments to protect refugees.
“Corruption, lack of understanding of the law and basic xenophobic attitudes by some government officials at the border post prevent those seeking asylum and international protection in South Africa from starting the process to apply for asylum,” explains Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh of LHR’s Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme. “These methods seem to be used by the Department to reduce the number of asylum applications while not dealing with the systemic problems of corruption and inefficiency within immigration and asylum services at the ports of entry.”
Denial of access to refugee services can have devastating consequences for those people seeking asylum and international protection. This may result in bona fide refugees being left without any documents and subject to arrest and deportation to countries where they may face a real risk to their lives and basic freedoms.
LHR calls on the Department of Home Affairs to end the policy of refusing access to refugee reception offices and to consult with refugees and refugee services providers to come to a solution which is compliant with both international law and the basic rights afforded to applicants under the Constitution.