All Press Releases
15 April 2010
Home Affairs’ Asylum Reforms Should Instead Focus on Immigration Policy, Say Rights Groups
The Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) welcomes the recent statements by the Home Affairs Minister and Deputy Minister, made in advance of the department’s budget vote in Parliament, acknowledging the need for reform. However, these statements misrepresent the...
19 March 2010
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...
1 March 2010
In the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, Rabie J today endorsed the eviction of approximately 300–400 individuals occupying Portion 25 of the farm of Mooiplaats, Itireleng. The court ordered that the abovementioned property, owned by Golden Thread Limited, be vacated by 29 March 2010.
The court highlighted among other factors: the violation of Golden Thread’s property...
25 February 2010
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...
9 February 2010
The Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) is extremely concerned by the
renewed xenophobic violence which has taken place in Siyathemba, Balfour. Last night, shops
owned by foreign nationals in the area were attacked and looted by a large mob, reportedly after a
demonstration against the local mining industry. The violence resulted in a number of shops being
looted and...
9 February 2010
Amnesty International deplores the failure of the police at local and provincial level to protect
the safety and property of refugees living in the Siyathemba/Balfour area of Mpumalanga
province. Last night, for the second time in less than eight months, refugees and migrants
were forced to flee the area after receiving threats. An armed crowd of several hundred looted
and damaged their shops and...
27 January 2010
The South Gauteng High Court ruled on Monday that the Department of Home Affairs acted unlawfully in detaining a Burundian national for more than six months at the Lindela Repatriation Centre. Noting that the matter was “inherently urgent” because it involved individual liberty, the Court demanded the applicant’s immediate release. The judge declared that “a...
14 January 2010
Joint Statement on the Principle of Non-Refoulement and the Recent Forced Deportations of the Uighurs from Cambodia and the Lao Hmong from Thailand
We, the undersigned, condemn the actions in the last days of 2009 of some Asian governments in requesting, encouraging and performing the forcible deportation (refoulement) of refugees and asylum seekers from Cambodia and Thailand....
14 December 2009
We, being civil society organizations and individuals concerned with the advancement of the constitutionally protected right to environment that is not harmful to health or well-being and the right to have the environment protected for present and future generations, state as follows:
1. We are extremely concerned about...
8 December 2009
The following organizations would like to express our grave concerns regarding the humanitarian crisis that faces homeless people, particularly Zimbabwean migrants, who are seeking shelter at the Central Methodist Church (CMC) in downtown Johannesburg.
We commend the selfless intervention of Bishop Paul Verryn and his colleagues at the CMC who, for several years, have responded to the...