Programme News
19 March 2010
(Press release)
The Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday 17th March ordered the immediate release of a family of eight asylum seekers who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan, after more than four months in detention and numerous attempts by Home Affairs to illegally return them to Afghanistan. The two parents, their five minor children, and the oldest daughter’s fiancé, also a minor, were arrested...
25 February 2010
(Press release)
The Supreme Court of Appeal gave a scathing rebuke to the Department of Home Affairs on Wednesday and ordered the immediate release of an Ethiopian asylum seeker who has been detained at the Lindela Repatriation Centre for more than 275 days.
The appellant is an ethnic Oromo who was in prison in Ethiopia because of his role as an Oromo Liberation Front political activist. He first sought...
15 January 2010
(News)
Johannesburg - Thirty-nine foreign nationals, including mothers with young children, were arrested for loitering in the Johannesburg inner city, police said on Thursday. Inspector Gordon Billing said the people, mostly from Malawi and Zimbabwe, were arrested near the Johannesburg Central Methodist Church and the High Court on Wednesday.
"The Johannesburg central crime prevention made...
7 January 2010
(News)
The government has agreed to let an independent curator assess the circumstances of each unaccompanied minor at the Central Methodist Church before they can be relocated. Since September, when allegations surfaced about the sexual abuse of children at the church, the government has been trying to have the children removed from the church premises, which housed more than 2,000 mostly...
8 December 2009
(Press release)
The following organizations would like to express our grave concerns regarding the humanitarian crisis that faces homeless people, particularly Zimbabwean migrants, who are seeking shelter at the Central Methodist Church (CMC) in downtown Johannesburg.
We commend the selfless intervention of Bishop Paul Verryn and his colleagues at the CMC who, for several years, have responded to the...
12 August 2009
(News)
Cynthia, who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo to find safety in this country a year ago, says: "I don't want to live in South Africa too long; I am so scared for my little boy." She arrived in June when the countrywide xenophobia attacks had ended, but says even today she is scared to speak to her child when he cries in a taxi, because he only understands French and she has been...
16 July 2009
(Press release)
The South Gauteng High Court today ruled that the deportation of an asylum seeker by the Department of Home Affairs was unlawful, unconstitutional, and invalid, and ordered the Department to pay for and facilitate his return to South Africa. The asylum seeker, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, was unlawfully deported on 10 May, 2009—two days before he was to appear in court to...
13 July 2009
(News)
Destitute people who were arrested while sleeping outside the Methodist Church in central Joburg a week ago say police beat them, insulted them, gave them electric shocks and stole their belongings.
Joburg metro police and SAPS members arrested 358 homeless people, mostly Zimbabweans, late at night on July 3. They were due to appear in court last Monday on charges of loitering, but were released...
6 July 2009
(Press release)
Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and the AIDS Law Project (ALP) today welcomed a decision by the State Prosecutor at the Johannesburg Magistrates Court to withdraw charges of loitering against over 350 homeless people who were arrested on Friday night in the vicinity of the Central Methodist Church.The majority of those who were arrested are Zimbabwean refugees,...
5 July 2009
(Press release)
We welcome the invitation by Community Safety MEC, Khabisi Mosunkutu, to discuss our concerns regarding the arrest of hundreds of destitute people for sleeping outside the Central Methodist Church and in the streets of Johannesburg shortly before midnight on Friday. We will be seeking a meeting with the MEC and other relevant officials in the coming days.At present, almost all of those arrested...