#WorldRefugeeDay: New refugee reception office to open in Cape Town

Source: Cape Argus, 20/06/2018

A case against the Department of Home Affairs was launched for not
complying with orders of the court to open the Refugee Reception
Office in Cape Town. A new one is set to be opened.
Cape Town - A new refugee reception office in Cape Town will be
opening its doors soon. That’s according to the Department of Public
Works.
“The process (tender process) to secure premises is underway, and we
hope it will be done by July. This process has time frames that depend
on the correct procedures being followed,” said spokesperson Bukiwe
Mgobozi.
According to a report on the status of the reception office sent to
the Scalabrini Centre, the department said the status quo remained the
same regarding their readiness to open the new office.
The report also showed that as part of its execution plan they had not
yet placed an advert for a tender; it also showed that the proposed
date for occupation would be next year in January.
“Public Works received a request for accommodation from the Department
of Home Affairs in February this year. That request had to be revised
and corrected, and the process had to be restarted in March,” Mgobozi
said.
But advocacy groups said the process could be much longer than that.
“When they do find a premises they will still have to prepare it,
which could mean renovating it and setting up an IT system. So they
still have a long way to go, and I strongly doubt they will be able to
do that within a month,” said Marike Keller, a policy development and
advocacy specialist at Sonke Gender Justice.
Keller said something similar to what happened to the Refugee
Reception office in Port Elizabeth could happen.
On June 15 a site hand-over, from Public Works to the Department of
Home Affairs, took place at the future location of the Port Elizabeth
Refugee Reception Office.
The Director-General of Home Affairs, Mkuseli Apleni, said that
services would only start in October.
Cory Johnson from the Scalabrini Centre said: “Well we hope they wrap
up this process quickly and get this done in a timely manner, and we
hope that they communicate everything with us.”
The Supreme Court of Appeal found the decision to close the Cape Town
refugee reception office “substantively unlawful and irrational” and
required the department to reopen and maintain a fully functional
office in the Cape Town metropolitan area by March 31, and to provide
monthly reports on its progress in complying with the order