Programme News
13 August 2008
(News)
ARE foreign nationals in Pietermaritzburg at the receiving end of South African police harassment? Up until last month, 26-year-old Zimbabwean refugee Phinias Joe probably would have said no. Despite having been in South Africa since 2004, he'd never been asked by police for his ID book, let alone his (valid) refugee papers.
But that was before his brush with the law on July 22, which resulted...
11 August 2008
(News)
THE past three months have seen a dramatic change in the public perception of this country's victims of xenophobic violence.
From once pathetic victims of violent wrath by SA's poor and disillusioned, refugees upset by the government's poorly planned re-integration policy have now been branded as ungrateful rebels. This is often what happens when you don't live up to your brand name.
The...
31 July 2008
(Press release)
Yesterday, a group of refugees was remanded in custody until next week for a minor traffic violation following a police crackdown on their makeshift camp on the R28 Highway. This camp was created as asylum seekers and refugees were gradually released from the Lindela Holding Facility following their arrest and removal from the Glenanda protection camp. Each of the men had been charged under...
29 July 2008
(News)
By Zelda VenterBarely two metres from the busy R512 roadleading to Lanseria Airport and Hartbeespoortdam, eight families have bravedthe inclement weather after they were evicted from the farm on which some hadlived for more than 60 years.
The group ranges from the elderly to smallchildren.
On Sunday night when the Pretoria News visited the evictees,65-year-old Priscilla Masilo and Jeremiah...
28 July 2008
(News)
Out in the cold (once again)NICOLE JOHNSTON: NEWS ANALYSIS | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Jul 28 2008 15:39In the space of just a few weeks, the status of refugees fleeing xenophobic violence has gone from victim to offender. The official line is that they are at best ungrateful and at worst criminals who have something to hide. The crisis at the Glenanda camp last week was sparked when the...
24 July 2008
(Press release)
Amnesty International today condemned the forcible removal by police of more than 700 people, including refugees and asylum-seekers, from the Glenanda ("Rifle Range Road") displacement camp near Johannesburg to Lindela Repatriation Centre.
23 July 2008
(News)
Release Glenanda Asylum seekers - lawyers
Asylum seekers and refugees detained at the Lindela Repatriation Centre following their removal from Johannesburg's Glenanda camp on Tuesday should not be deported, Lawyers for Human Rights said on Wednesday.
Spokesperson Jacob van Garderen said his organisation had sent a team of lawyers to the detention centre to help those who believed they had...
23 July 2008
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights has been monitoring the situation at the Rifle Range Camp for victims of xenophobic attacks. We are greatly concerned about the recent arrests of residents of the camp who refused to register and be issued with a temporary exemption permit under the Immigration Act.
Although LHR sees the issuing of such permits as an important step towards the reintegration of...
23 July 2008
(News)
The Citizen 23 July 2008
Fight to save foreigner camps
STEVEN TAU and CHRIS BATHEMBU
JOHANNESBURG - LAWYERS for Human Rights (LHR) will fight a bid by the Gauteng government to demolish temporary shelters set up to house victims of xenophobic attacks across the province.
The provincial government announced yesterday that the shelters will be destroyed by the end of the week...
22 July 2008
(News)
Pretoria - Residents of the Schubart and Kruger Parkflats in Pretoria obtained an urgent Pretoria High Court interdict on Tuesdayto stop their eviction.This followed an outbreak of violence and the death ofat least six residents when a fire broke out in the Kruger Park flats duringprotests against forced evictions.Judge Ferdi Preller granted an interim order to stopevictions from continuing at...