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Cape Town refugee centre must be opened by end of March

Source: Groundup, 15/12/2017

Cape Town - On Thursday the Constitutional Court rejected an
application by the Department of Home Affairs for leave to appeal, in
a matter relating to the Cape Town Refugee Reception Office.
The Department was appealing a decision by Supreme Court of Appeal
(SCA). The SCA ruled in September that Home Affairs must `reopen and
maintain a fully functional refugee reception
Currently the Cape Town centre on the Foreshore does not accept new
applications from asylum seekers. Nor does it accept applications from
people who received asylum in other cities.
The Constitutional Court wrote that the Department`s application
should be dismissed `as it bears no prospect of success`.
The case was brought by the Scalabrini Centre and the Somali
Association of South Africa, as well as five asylum seekers.
On 29 September, SCA found the decision of the director general of the
Department of Home Affairs to close the Cape Town Refugee Reception
Office to be unlawful and set the decision aside; overturning a High
Court decision.

The SCA ordered the Department of Home Affairs to reopen the office
within six months.

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