Programme News
31 March 2009
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights welcomes the judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Ulde v Minister of Home Affairs which was delivered today, 31 March 2009. The SCA unanimously upheld the appeal against the decision of the Johannesburg High Court to dismiss an application by a Pakistani immigrant to declare his detention unlawful.Lawyers for Human Rights, acting as amicus curiae in this...
25 March 2009
(News)
Johannesburg - Conditions at a detention centre for illegal foreigners near Musina were appalling and the centre should be declared unlawful, the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday. Acting judge Joseph Raulinga reserved judgment in an application by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) against the police and the ministers of Home Affairs and Social Development.
23 March 2009
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights will approach the High Court in Pretoria tomorrow, Tuesday 24 March 2009, for an urgent order declaring the immigration detention centre located on the military grounds in Musina, unlawful.
Every month, approximately 15 000 Zimbabwean nationals are deported from a detention centre located on a military base outside of the town of Musina close to the Zimbabwean border...
20 March 2009
(News)
ZIMBABWE’s government of national unity was too young for Zimbabweans in SA to start thinking of going back home, Patrick Matlou, CEO of the Africa Institute of SA, said yesterday. He said SA was compelled by international conventions, such as the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees and the old Organisation of African Union’s convention on refugees, to continue providing support...
20 March 2009
(News)
The UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) has created a refugee crisis in Johannesburg, the Gauteng government said on Thursday 19 March 2009. Since February, the UNHCR has been providing transport for thousands of Zimbabwean refugees to come to Johannesburg — without informing the authorities — said the spokesperson for provincial department of local government Themba Sepotokele.
18 March 2009
(Press release)
The Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP) at the University of Witwatersrand held a closed door roundtable discussion with the Department of Home Affairs officials on Friday 13 March 2009. The discussion centered around recommendations contained in a newly released FMSP study assessing refugee policy and service delivery at the country's five permanent refugee reception offices. The report,...
5 March 2009
(News)
Judgment was reserved today after the Constitutional Court heard argument on a family of Kenyan origin's challenge to the loss of their permanent citizenship. The court was hearing the case of asking for leave to appeal a Pretoria High Court decision. Wycliffe Simiyu Koyabe and his family
Koyabe arrived in South Africa in 1994 and was granted a work permit, but he and the others were arrested...
5 March 2009
(Press release)
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the international medical humanitarian organisation, today denounced the decision by South African authorities to close the ‘showground', a large open field in Musina town near the Zimbabwe border, where 3,000 - 4,000 Zimbabweans queue to apply for asylum and seek refuge each night.
The closure of the showgrounds demonstrates a...
5 March 2009
(News)
Thousands of Zimbabwean refugees are stranded after authorities in South Africa moved to shut a camp sheltering them in the border town of Musina.The refugees had fled a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe and many hoped to seek political asylum in South Africa. The government said the refugees would be transferred to a military base, but aid officials criticised the move.Hollywood star Matt Damon, who...
26 February 2009
(News)
The Minister of Home Affairs has been ordered by thePretoria High Court to immediately release an asylum seeker from of theDemocratic Republic of the Congo who is being held at the Lindela HoldingFacility in Krugersdorp.
Max Boziss, 28, desperately tried to renew hisasylum seeker temporary permit, but long queues at the department prevented himfrom doing so in time. It was stated in court...