Programme News
20 June 2011
(News)
When Parliament adopted the Refugees Act just more than a decade ago, it was hailed by many as a progressive and modern approach to protect people fleeing persecution and civil strife. South Africa broke from the traditional African approach of accommodating refugees in large rural-based camps. Parliament has also thus far resisted the European and Australian examples of detaining asylum seekers...
15 June 2011
(Press release)
The Southern African Litigation Centre together with the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa have launched legal action seeking the cancellation of former Rwandan general and suspected war criminal Faustin Kayumbe Nyamwasa’s refugee status in South Africa – arguing that the decision violates South African and international law and increases the likelihood of South...
3 June 2011
(Press release)
Human Rights Watch Press Release: Extend Moratorium on Deporting Zimbabweans
(Johannesburg, June 3, 2011) – The South African government should quickly open a new refugee reception center in Johannesburg, Human Rights Watch said today. The closing of the existing center on June 1, 2011, will make it even harder for asylum seekers to lodge claims in the country’s chronically...
2 June 2011
(News)
Women residents from the Ramaphosa informal settlement east of Johannesburg have stood up to spaza shop owners who tried to order their foreign competitors out of the area.
What started out as a drive to evict Somali and Pakistani businessmen from a township notorious for xenophobia has backfired spectacularly.
'The same guys who want our bosses to leave treat us badly'
In the early hours of...
1 June 2011
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights notes its dismay at the closure of the only refugee reception office in Johannesburg at Crown Mines. The closure of this office is due to a court order requiring its closure after the surrounding businesses in the area approached the court to seek the closure of the office. It appears that this order was granted on the grounds that DHA used the building without...
30 May 2011
(News)
Plans are underway to establish asylum reception centres on the country's borders amid complaints that those close to business areas are a nuisance and irritating, home affairs said on Friday.This would also ensure that fewer foreigners entered the country, said home affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni. The department was recently ordered to relocate a reception centre in Crown Mines,...
25 May 2011
(News)
Johannesburg - Round two of a battle by two Batswana to avoid the death penalty in their country continued in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday.The extradition laws and constitutions of Botswana and South Africa were pitted against each other. Also, the extradition treaty the two countries have signed, came into focus.
The South African Constitution gives emphasis to human rights and...
24 May 2011
(News)
The City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit established to prevent the illegal occupation of city and provincial land, is acting unlawfully says Lawyers for Human Rights.
LHR lawyer Sheldon Magardie said the unit demolished structures without a court order and he was planning to approach the Cape High Court for an interdict to prevent the city from doing so.
“In our view, the city...
22 May 2011
(Press release)
The South Gauteng High Court will hear submissions from Lawyers for Human Rights over the next two days (23 and 24 May 2011) in the cases of Tsebe v Minister of Home Affairs and others and Phale v Minister of Home Affairs and Others regarding the lawfulness of an extradition to a country which still practices the death penalty, in this case Botswana.
In both of these cases, the...
13 May 2011
(Press release)
Terrified foreign traders in several locations around Gauteng are closing their shops and businesses in the wake of the threats issued to them by the Greater Gauteng Business Forum. There are at least nine affected areas which include, Freedom Park, Ramaphosa, Kagiso, Ratanda, Motsoaledi, Katlehong, Diepsloot, Tembisa, and Orlando East. In the last few weeks, a group of local business...