Home Affairs ignores court order

Source: Groundup, 03/04/2018

Scores of asylum seekers turned away at Foreshore office
Asylum seekers on Tuesday morning gather outside the Foreshore
offices of Home Affairs. Many new applicants were expecting to be
processed, but they were turned away despite a court order.
It was chaotic outside the Foreshore offices of Home Affairs on
Tuesday morning. Security personnel were patrolling the long queues
of foreign nationals, many of whom had come to apply for the first
time. But security officers told GroundUp that the Foreshore office
would not be serving any new asylum seekers.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled in September that Home
Affairs must “reopen and maintain a fully functional refugee
reception office in or around the Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality
by Friday 31 March 2018.”
But on Tuesday, 3 April, the Foreshore offices turned away new
refugee applicants from the DRC, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Somalia and
elsewhere.
Abdul (surname omitted) was one of a group of 20 Somalis applying for
asylum for the first time. They had travelled from Atlantis on Monday
morning. Abdul arrived in Cape Town in 2015 and has been surviving on
piecemeal work. He can’t start a business, open a bank account or go
to an educational facility because he does not have asylum papers. He
arrived at 5:45am at the Foreshore office. At 8am, an official
announced that no newcomers would be processed.
“He did not take down our names or give us appointments. He only said
we should come back,” said Abdul. “I am living in fear that police
can arrest me at anytime. I am powerless. I didn’t want to argue with
the officials and I can’t force them to help me.”
Baku (surname omitted), who is from the DRC, applied for asylum in
Johannesburg. He moved to Cape Town in 2015, but the Foreshore
offices refused to renew his permit. He is now staying at a church in
Goodwood where refugees are provided with blankets and food.
Baku has struggled to get work because he has no valid document. He
is now using a letter from the Legal Resources Centre to show police.
It reads: “We are advised that asylum seekers whose applications were
not originally registered in Cape Town are being turned away by
officials at the Cape Town Refugee Reception Office…. Officials
insist that asylum seekers return to the office where they first
applied for asylum in order to renew their permits. In the meantime
any arrest of asylum seekers in the Western Cape by reason of an
expired permit might possibly be unlawful and will be premature
pending the finalisation of this matter by court.”
Abdikadir Mohamed, Western Cape Director and National Spokesperson
Somali Association of South Africa, said, “We are currently
consulting with our legal partners but will make an official
statement soon.”
At the time of publishing, Home Affairs had not responded to
GroundUp’s emails and text messages. In March the Legal Resource
Centre accused Home Affairs of defying the court order by not
reporting properly to the SCA on its progress towards meeting the
April deadline.
On 30 January, Home Affairs had told GroundUp a new refugee office
for Cape Town was on the way. Department of Home Affairs spokesperson
David Hlabane said, “The Department of Home Affairs has written to
the Department of Public Works to get a suitable building for the
refugees’ office to give effect to the court order and to ensure that
all the needs of refugees and asylum seekers are properly met.”