Programme News
7 January 2013
(News)
As thousands of Zimbabweans are deported from South Africa, hundreds of migrant children awaiting deportation are being held in appalling conditions in detention facilities near Johannesburg and Musina, despite calls from legal and medical human rights groups to improve conditions.
Immigration authorities say about 43 000 Zimbabweans were deported from South Africa in 2012.
Among the deportees...
28 December 2012
(News)
The ANC has once again signalled that it wants to see the country’s immigration policy comprehensively reviewed, citing concerns over the abuse of the asylum-seeking system and competition for jobs between foreigners and local unemployed.
Since 1994 South Africa has adopted one of the most liberal immigration policies in the world. This, together with corruption, and poor border and...
13 December 2012
(News)
The home affairs department says from 2013, it will only issue unabridged birth certificates.
Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday, Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor said the unabridged certificates will be issued free of charge to all first time applicants.
Pandor said the unabridged certificates will be issued on the spot, reducing the turn-around time currently experienced when...
12 December 2012
(News)
The South African Police Services (SAPS) is facing criticism for using tear gas to control a restless group of travellers at the border with Zimbabwe, amid warnings that the crackdown on cross border migration between the two countries is intensifying.
SAPS members at the Beitbridge border fired tear gas last Friday morning where queues of mainly Zimbabwean citizens had been waiting several hours...
7 December 2012
(News)
South Africa attracts more asylum seekers than any other country in the world. There are 58 000 refugees in the country and more than 200 000 pending cases for asylum seekers. Somalis are among the most visible of the refugee communities as they usually are traders who operate in the most destitute places. But this leaves them vulnerable to very high levels of crime.
In the dry heat of the...
7 December 2012
(News)
The South African government could soon face being charged with contempt of court, as part of an ongoing battle by human rights groups to stop the closure of refugee reception offices across the country.
There are now only three offices left open across South Africa since the authorities started closing the facilities last year, as part if what is understood to be a change in the government's...
6 December 2012
(Press release)
North Gauteng High Court confirms the importance of confidentiality in hearings before the Refugee Appeal Board. The court also declared the 2003 Rules of the Refugee Appeal Board invalid. See attached judgment
6 December 2012
(News)
Migration specialist Roni Amit calls South Africa's policy towards migrants in recent years "the securitisation of immigration".
Amit, who is a senior researcher at the Centre for African Migration and Society at Johannesburg’s Wits University, says "there’s just this increased sense that we need to protect our borders and stop people from coming in. There’s...
3 December 2012
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) on Monday briefed Parliament’s portfolio committee on home affairs on the escalating number of stateless people in South Africa.
Statelessness is caused by state succession, gaps in various countries’ law (both internally and as states relate to one another), denationalisation, dual nationalities, unaccompanied minors and mixed migration, a...
3 December 2012
(News)
The government has drawn up plans to build refugee “camps” along South Africa’s borders. This was revealed in papers submitted to the high court in Cape Town - and has prompted an outcry by human rights groups. The current policy is that refugees or asylum-seekers may live freely among local residents. But now it appears the government is revising this policy, with at least 52...