Asylum seekers may face greater difficulties entering South Africa
once Parliament enacts legislation to create a new agency that will
have full control of the country’s borders and ports, and once the
department of home affairs opens new processing centres for asylum
seekers.


Border management is currently provided by several state departments
and agencies including the department of home affairs, the South
African Revenue Service (SARS) and the South African Police Service
(SAPS), overseen by the Border Control Operational Coordinating
Committee.


This month Parliament approved the controversial Border Management
Authority Bill, which could simultaneously subject asylum seekers to
far worse conditions than they currently face, while paving the way
for greater levels of corruption at the country’s ports of
entry.


One MP described the bill as “one of the worst pieces of legislation
that has come before the House” and the Daily Maverick’s Richard
Poplack dubbed it the country’s “next nightmare”.


Loren Landau, the South African Research Chair in Mobility and the
Politics of Difference at the African Centre for Migration and
Society, said he feared that the bill would create a largely
unaccountable agency that will regulate the border as much for profile
as for protection of South Africans or migrants. This could give rise
to greater levels of exploitation, organised crime and
violence.


For example, the bill empowers agents to search people without
warrants and to “seize anything found in that search or inspection
that may be lawfully seized”. Landau said asylum seekers were already
subject to a range of invasive practices, but that the checks proposed
in this bill “give officials enormous opportunities to extract
resources of various kinds from asylum seekers”.


One of the criticisms of the bill has been that resources collected by
customs â€" estimated to be worth R3-billion a year â€" would be collected
by home affairs rather than SARS, and that there was no indication of
how the money would be used. It is also unclear where the bill’s
proposed ‘border guards’ would be drawn from and what powers they
would hold.


Landau said we must ask whether the bill is solving a problem.
“Clearly there is an impression that it will solve uncontrolled
migration into

South Africa. I don’t think that is such a problem and
I don’t think this bill …will address the problems that people think
we have,” he said.


Earlier this month, Minister of Home Affairs Hlengiwe Mkhize said in a
statement that the bill would represent a “radical shift from the
colonial and apartheid systems”. But Landau disagreed, saying the bill
suggests a recolonisation and nationalisation of border control “in
much of the way the militarisation of the borders happened during the
apartheid era.”


Meanwhile, government has been laying down plans to begin building
massive border camps in which to house the approximately 70 000 people
who apply for refugee status in South Africa each year.
Roshan Dadoo, director of the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in
South Africa (Cormsa) said processing centres at borders urgently need
to be looked at. “These new processing centres are so unclear, even in
the Refugee Amendment Bill, the way it is worded means they will be
detention centres,” she said. This is because people would only be
allowed to leave the centres if they met specific requirements before
the interview deciding their refugee status is held.


According to the department of home affairs, over 90% of asylum
seekers don’t qualify for refugee status. Administrative errors have
also lead to a massive backlog of cases, a problem Dadoo said was not
being addressed by the Department of Home Affairs.


“What is needed is to improve the status adjudication system so people
can have interviews done in a much quicker way. At the moment, people
are running on asylum-seeker status for ten years or more.”


Although government says the Border Management Authority is being set
up to prevent drug-related crimes, human trafficking, the illegitimate
movement of goods and the unauthorised movement of persons, and that
its border processing centres are meant to reduce backlogs in
applications for asylum, these moves could further alienate asylum
seekers even future. With many South Africans already hostile towards
immigrants, the country could soon become an even more dangerous place
for those fleeing persecution in search of a better life V.1993

One of the highlighted topics: Critical Skills Visa.

- Key Insight: Is your profession on the Critical Skills List? This visa is your fast track to working in South Afr...
- This matter relates to critical skills visa and its broader implications.
- Individuals are advised to seek professional guidance.

Is your profession on the Critical Skills List? This visa is your fast trac V.6139
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One of the applicants, Phindile Mazibuko, became a victim of identity theft in 2012 when fraudulent transactions occurred, using her personal details.

-The Pretoria High Court found that the department of home affairs had violated constitutional rights without due process.
-Only half of Lawyers for Human Rights` test group has been unblocked, while 385 000 identities remain blocked nationwide.
-LHR appeals extension, urges affected people to seek help now.

Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) are intensifying pressure on the department of home affairs over the national ID-blocking crisis, accusing the state of acting too slowly to unblock qualifying individuals despite a landmark court ruling.

In January last year, the Pretoria High Court found that the department`s practice of blocking IDs without due process was unlawful and unconstitutional. One of the applicants, Phindile Mazibuko, a Swati citizen and South African permanent resident since 1998, fell victim to identity theft in 2012 when fraudsters used her personal details.

 V.6133
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The Border Management Authority (BMA) has doubled its staff at Airports in South Africa , including immigration officers.

What does this mean for travelers? V.6128
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The Border Management Authority (BMA) has doubled its staff at Airports in South Africa , including immigration officers.

What does this mean for travelers? V.6129
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A Washington state mother and her 6-year-old son have been released after spending more than three weeks in US immigration detention due to a brief trip to Canada and a small paperwork mistake, her attorney told CNN on Saturday.

Sarah Shaw, a New Zealand citizen who has lived legally in the US since she arrived in 2021, was detained at the Blaine, Washington, Customs and Border Protection checkpoint when returning home after dropping her two oldest children off at the Vancouver airport for a flight to visit their grandparents in New Zealand. Shaw, 33, chose the flight out of Vancouver because it was direct and she didn`t want her children to have to navigate a layover alone, her attorney Minda Thorward, told CNN.

 V.6130
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On 22 July 2025, the Gauteng High Court dismissed Sitrusrand Boerdery`s review of the Department of Employment and Labour`s refusal to issue a Working Conditions and Salary Benchmarking Certificate, an essential precondition for obtaining corporate visas under the Immigration Act.

Acting Judge Kekana AJ held that the Department`s decision was lawful, rational and procedurally fair. This judgment illustrates how businesses can - and must - structure their corporate visa applications to meet statutory requirements, and how legal practitioners should prepare robust review challenges when administrative authorities decline to recommend foreign-work permits.

 V.6131
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The United States could forfeit an estimated 9.4 billion dollars in visitor spending over the next three years following the introduction of a new 250 dollars `visa integrity fee,` according to industry groups, who warn the policy risks undermining tourism and costing thousands of jobs.
The United States’ decision to introduce a 250 dollars `visa integrity fee` on international visitors has triggered sharp criticism from the global tourism industry, with officials warning that the measure could deter millions of travellers and cost the U.S. economy billions.
The 250dollar `visa integrity fee,` part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed on July 4, 2025, will take effect later this year. According to immigration law firm Envoy Global, it applies to all nonimmigrant visa holders which include students, tourists, temporary workers, and business visitors particularly from African countries. V.6132
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The Border Management Authority (BMA) has doubled its staff at Airports in South Africa , including immigration officers.

What does this mean for travelers? V.6127
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1. Right to Legal Representation•You have the right to consult with a legal representative.•Contact an immigration practitioner, legal aid clinic, or attorney urgently.•Do not sign any documents without understanding them fully. 2. Section 34 of the Immigration Act•You must be brought to court with 48 hours to confirm arrest but you can remain locked up very long as courts figure out what to do with you •If you`re found to be illegally in South Africa, you may be detained for up to 30 days (extendable by a magistrate) pending deportation.•BUT this cannot happen arbitrarily. You must be informed of your rights, and Home Affairs must follow due process.- becomes a nightmare , you could lose your job , business , place to stay V.6121
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Driving for Bolt, Uber, Mr D, or Checkers Sixty60?If you`re undocumented, you`re risking more than just your income.The Risks if You`re Not Legal: - Vehicle impoundment - Heavy fines - Arrest & deportation - Permanent bans from working in SA V.6122
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