Press Release: Legal challenge on refugees’ right to work and operate businesses
Refugee and asylum-seeker traders are seeking leave to appeal the dismissal of their case before the North Gauteng High Court where they challenged the unlawful closure of their informal businesses by the police. The challenge comes in the light of their right to work and trade as refugees and asylum-seekers in South Africa.
In September this year, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) brought an application against the Limpopo provincial government, the police and several other departments on behalf of the traders, arguing that refugees and asylum-seekers living in South Africa legally were "entitled to trade and operate business to earn a living in circumstances where they had no other means of livelihood". The application was dismissed by Judge Natvarial Ranchod.
LHR, representing the Somali Association of South Africa and the Ethiopian Community of South Africa, will argue for leave to appeal the dismissal of this application on 5 December (Thursday) in the Palm Ridge Magistrates’ Court.
Background to the case:
In a crackdown on businesses perceived to be operating illegally, known as “Operation Hardstick”, police have been closing businesses and confiscating the stock of refugee and asylum-seeker traders. The closures and confiscations have led to the traders losing their livelihoods. These are largely small tuckshops and spaza shops operating in remote areas in Limpopo.
SAPS apparently introduced Operation Hardstick in an alleged effort to stop the operation of illegal businesses in Limpopo but this operation has had the intended effect of closing down many small businesses run by asylum-seekers and refugees. These closures have clearly targeted small businesses owned by asylum-seekers and recognised refugees resulting in unfair, inequitable and illegal treatment of asylum-seekers and refugees.
Refugees and asylum-seekers are often unable to find stable work in South Africa and without this form of informal employment, they are deprived of their only means of financial support. They have been left destitute and in some cases homeless. The personal circumstances of each of the applicants in the matter has been set out in court papers. Those affidavits paint a picture of the most naked form of xenophobic discrimination and utter desperation.
According to LHR’s attorney Anjuli Maistry, “Our clients are very distressed by the dismissal of the case at the North Gauteng High Court. The refugee and asylum-seeker traders are now unable to support themselves and the Court has failed to acknowledge this. The Court did not consider the extreme difficulties they have had in trying to apply for and receive operating licences from the relevant municipalities.”
“Further refugee and asylum-seeker traders have suffered additional harm as the police have seized stock and equipment, which collectively values thousands of rand, without providing any account of the confiscated stock or any opportunity to recover this stock or its value. The shop closures and the police’s seizure of numerous freezers has resulted in the loss of thousands more rand as most stock within these shops are perishable,”. “The shops remain closed and the traders’ situation remains increasingly desperate” she added.
Details:
What: Somali Association of South Africa and others v Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism and others
When: 5 December 2013
Where: Palm Ridge Magristrates’ Court in Johannesburg