Programme News
26 July 2012
(Press release)
Court Orders Cape Town Refugee Reception Office to Accept New Asylum Applicants Judge Dennis Davis of the Western Cape High Court decided in favour of continued access to the Cape Town Refugee Reception Office (CT RRO) for new asylum applicants. The
Judge found that the decision by the Department of Home Affairs was taken without the legally required consultation with the Standing Committee for...
22 July 2012
(Press release)
On Tuesday, the North Gauteng High Court will hear arguments against the discriminatory targeting of foreign traders in Limpopo by police and the Department of Home Affairs.
In the case of Somali Association of South Africa and others v Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism and others, Lawyers for Human Rights is challenging the unlawful practice preventing...
20 July 2012
(Press release)
CORMSA PRESS RELEASE:The struggle to keep Refugee Reception Offices open continues across the country with another litigation effort on the closure of the Cape Town Refugee Reception Office. The Department of Home Affairs has been implementing (an unofficial) policy which has seen the closure thus far of the Crowne Mines RRO (Johannesburg) in May 2011; the Port Elizabeth RRO in...
19 June 2012
(News)
SOUTH Africa is getting two-thirds fewer applications for asylum than a few years ago, but researchers say officials make such bad decisions that the whole system is now meaningless. Department of Home Affairs (DHA) officials are so biased and administratively unfair that asylum-seekers are systematically rejected, resulting in an asylum system which “functions solely as an instrument...
19 June 2012
(Press release)
World Refugee Day was established by the United Nations to honour the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homes under threat of persecution, conflict and violence. On the eve of World Refugee Day in South Africa hundreds of refugees, asylum seekers, citizens and residents alike converged on the Marabastad refugee office to show their...
13 June 2012
(Press release)
Violent riots further affirm the need to protect the right to health at Lindela—yet Home Affairs idles. On 28 May 2012, a group of organisations wrote to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to request that it urgently investigate the state of health and health care service provision at Lindela Repatriation Centre (Lindela). Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF),...
13 June 2012
(Press release)
The South African Human Rights Commission has been receiving numerous complaints about the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in Gauteng. The Commission has been monitoring the situation closely. The Commission responded to the riot at the Lindela Repatriation centre on Monday by sending a monitoring team to visit the facility on Tuesday morning. The team engaged in discussions...
11 June 2012
(News)
Court nod for them to build in posh area: GROUP of informal dwellers living in a shanty town in Moreleta Park, informally known as Plastic View, has won the right not to only stay – but to build houses in one of the city’s most affluent areas.
PICTURE: PHILL MAGAKOE Squatters in Moreleta Park have been given the nod to build homes in one of the most affluent areas of the city,...
8 June 2012
(News)
The Department of Home Affairs must come up with urgent and meaningful measures to put an end to the ill treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, the SA Human Rights Commission said on Thursday.The recommendations come after the SAHRC launched another investigation into reports of an alleged protest which was staged by refugees at the Lindela Repatriation Centre on Monday.It was reported...
18 May 2012
(Press release)
The Eastern Cape High Court has refused to grant the Department of Home Affairs leave to appeal a decision which held that they may not close the Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office. The High Court delivered its judgment on the 14th May. This was in response to an application by Home Affairs to appeal an order which directed them to re-open the Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office. The...