Programme News
7 June 2013
(News)
Xenophobia attacks not over
Xenophobia attacks in South Africa have not ended, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) have said.
“It has been five years since (2008, when) coordinated attacks exploded across the country and led to the deaths of 64 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands more,” the head of LHR’s strategic litigation unit, David Cote, said today.
“...
4 June 2013
(News)
One in two South Africans wants foreign migrants to carry their IDs on them at all times and 63 percent of citizens want electrified fences on the country’s borders.
Half of the population also feel that migrants without the required documentation should never receive police protection and 14 percent believe that migrants, regardless of their legal status, enter the country with the...
30 May 2013
(News)
Chairperson,
Chairperson of the Select Committee on Social Services Mrs RN Rasmeni MP
National Council of Provinces MPs
Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Fatima Chohan MP
Last weekend, under the theme Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance, the African Union and member states marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
Many will recall the words of...
3 May 2013
(News)
Lawyers for Human Rights has scored a first-round victory for the rights of eight children seeking asylum in South Africa, but who have been separated from their parents for various reasons.
The children – aged from six to 16 – may now for the first time enter South Africa’s education system.
30 April 2013
(Press release)
The North Gauteng High Court ordered today that eight separated minors living in South Africa be allowed to register for and attend public school. The issue arose after public schools were threatened with fines for allowing these children into school.
Separated children have been refused entry into South African public schools over of a lack of documentation and status because the Department of...
30 April 2013
(News)
South Africa attracts the largest number of asylum seekers in the world, but grants refugee status to very few of them, ranking only thirty-sixth in the world for the size of its refugee population, which the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) puts at about 58,000.
The Department of Home Affairs, the government ministry tasked with managing the asylum system, approved just 15.5 percent of the applications...
30 April 2013
(News)
South Africa attracts the largest number of asylum seekers in the world, but grants refugee status to very few of them, ranking only thirty-sixth in the world for the size of its refugee population, which the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) puts at about 58,000.
The Department of Home Affairs, the government ministry tasked with managing the asylum system, approved just 15.5 percent of the applications...
26 April 2013
(News)
Most asylum seekers arrive in host countries with no evidence to prove they have fled persecution. This means the success of their applications for refugee status depends largely on whether their stories are believed. But the credibility of asylum seekers is increasingly being called into question, particularly in countries that receive large numbers of asylum claims.
Some migrants with no hope...
24 April 2013
(News)
Lawyers for Human Rights has claimed that the Department of Home Affairs' decision to close the refugee reception offices in metropolitan areas and opening offices in remote areas along South Africa's borders, will effectively create refugee camps.
LHR and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University's refugee rights centre have challenged the closure of the Port Elizabeth RRO.
20 April 2013
(News)
Judgment has been reserved in the Eastern Cape High Court in a battle between Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) and the Home Affairs Department.
This concerns a decision by the director general of Home Affairs to close a Refugee Reception Office (RRO) in Port Elizabeth.
LHR has approached the court to have the office reopened after it was closed in October 2011. The lobby group has argued that the...