Programme News
6 August 2015
(Press release)
The Constitutional Court has refused the Department of Home Affairs’ application for leave to appeal March’s ruling in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) that the Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office (RRO) be reopened.
The SCA had ordered Home Affairs to reopen the RRO and provide full services by 1 July 2015. The Department then appealed the ruling in the Constitutional Court where...
6 August 2015
(News)
A police officer shot and wounded in Mitchells Plain may have been targeted, this according to Mitchell's Plain police.
The policeman was shot at a petrol station in Rocklands and was rushed to the nearest hospital.
Mitchells Plain cops say the off-duty officer was filling his car at a fuel station on the corner of Cedars Avenue and Boshof Way when he was shot by an unknown attacker.
Police...
28 July 2015
(News)
Researchers have warned that disturbingly high levels of corruption in the Asylum Seeking Process may soon spread to other areas of the public service.
For the first time, the African Centre for Migration and Society, together with Lawyers for Human Rights, conducted research which shows that close to a third of migrants is experiencing corruption.
Senior researcher, Roni Amit, says many...
28 July 2015
(News)
Children seeking asylum will now be included in their caregiver’s application‚ regardless of whether they are biological relatives‚ Lawyers for Human Rights and the Centre for Child Law said.
This follows a ruling by the North Gauteng High Court on Thursday that all children entering South Africa with an relative applying for asylum will be a regarded as a dependent of the...
28 July 2015
(News)
The Department of Home Affairs has gone into damage control mode following a report that listed its Marabastad office as its most corrupt.
In response to the damning finding, in which Durban was found to be the least corrupt, at 3%, the department has set up Operation Bvisa Masina - Vendan for "throw out the rot" - to restore order throughout Home Affairs branches.
A response team...
27 July 2015
(News)
A report by Lawyers for Human Rights and the University of the Witwatersrand-based African Centre for Migration and Society, released this week, paints an ugly picture of the culture of bribery in South Africa’s refugee reception offices.
If we took the time to understand what drives anyone to leave the country of their birth - at times leaving behind loved ones such as children, spouses,...
27 July 2015
(News)
The Department of Home Affairs went into damage control mode following a report that listed its Marabastad office as its most corrupt.
In response to the damning finding, the department had set up a response team and a counter-corruption initiative — Operation Bvisa Masina, which is Venda for "throw out the rot" — to restore order throughout Home Affairs branches.
Home...
25 July 2015
(News)
Certain home affairs offices have been singled out for attention because they are apparently hotbeds for fraud and corruption.
This was the message delivered by Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba at a press briefing in Pretoria on the report about corruption at Marabastad Refugee Reception Office.
The report‚ released early last week by Lawyers for Human Rights (LRA) and the African Centre...
24 July 2015
(News)
On any given weekday somewhere between 500 and well over a thousand people line up at the Marabastad office of the department of home affairs, on the fringes of downtown Pretoria, to be processed for paperwork to confirm or reconfirm their status as asylum seekers or refugees in South Africa.
Before they leave again, according to research published this week, about half of them will have paid at...
23 July 2015
(News)
Pay up or go undocumented. This is the corrupt asylum system at South Africa’s refugee offices, making life even more difficult for an already marginalised group in society.
A report into the “rampant corruption” within the system exposes significant levels of crookery, with access, documentation, status and renewal requests having all been linked to some form of payment.
The...