Calls mount for reopening of refugee reception office in Cape Town

Source: IOL, 16/08/2018

Cape Town - The University of Cape Town’s Refugee Rights Unit has
called on the Department of Home Affairs to re-open its Refugee
Reception Offices for first-time asylum applications.
The unit appeared before Parliament’s portfolio committee on home
affairs, where it made a submission on the proposed amendments to the
Immigration Bill.
Attorney at the Refugee Rights Unit at the University of Cape Town
Popo Mfubu said the re-opening of the Cape Town Refugee Reception
Office (CTRRO) for new asylum applications, would assist with the
backlog of asylum applications.
“The things we want changed with the system include opening of refugee
offices, we don’t want undocumented people. People also don’t want to
undocumented, it is not enjoyable to be detained,” he added.
Home Affairs disregarded a court order last year, instructing it to
re-open its refugee reception office in Cape Town by 31 March 2018.
The country has five Refugee Reception Offices, however, the
department suspended the services to first-time applicants in two of
these offices.
The office building is open for renewal permits for asylum seekers who
registered at the Cape Town office prior to its closure in June 2012.
Mfubu charged that the suspension of services of the offices in Cape
Town and Port Elizabeth have added pressure on the remaining offices
that still assist first applicant asylum seekers.
He said officials who assist refugees must also apply legislation in
the correct manner to ensure that the backlog for undocumented
immigrants is resolved.
“We are currently doing a case now where we are challenging the manner
in which the Cape Town refugee office documents dependents of
refugees. There are many undocumented children because Home Affairs is
just not joining them to their parent’s files. They have created an
administrative barrier for them to be able to make those kind of
applications.
“Our refugee system is amazing, the framework is amazing. It is just
the application that is a problem,” said Mfubu.
The portfolio committee chairperson Hlomane Chauke said he was
concerned there was “no relationship between the organisation and Home
Affairs”. He said the committee would discuss the matters raised by
the organisation with the department.