Home Affairs reopens refugee office closed in 2011

Source: Groundup, 23/10/2018

The Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office was officially reopened on
Friday by Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba.
The province has been without such a facility since the Department of
Home Affairs unilaterally closed it in 2011, according to a GroundUp
report.
Following years of legal action, public outcry and civil society
activism, the Supreme Court of Appeal ordered the department in March
2015 to reopen the facility by July 1, 2015.
Years after that court deadline, the facility has at last reopened at
new premises in Sydenham.
`The new office will provide adequate accommodation with which to
extend better services to persons with legitimate claims. It has a
streamlined process flow; open spaces; baby-changing stations; and
multiple ablution facilities. Provision has also been made to
accommodate the Standing Committee for Refugee Affairs, Appeal Board
hearings and immigration inspectorate facilities,` the department
announced.
`It was a very long and bruising battle,` secretary general of the
Somali Association of South Africa, Mohammed Kat, said. `We won all
the court cases we brought against them, but the Department of Home
Affairs (DHA) kept appealing our victory until they reached the end of
the tether. They had no choice but to abide by the Supreme Court of
Appeal decision.`
Although he was happy refugees and asylum seekers would no longer have
to travel to other provinces to apply for permits, Kat said the
reopening was a bittersweet victory because a lot of time and
resources had been spent fighting the government in court.
`We were forced to shut down`
The Somali Association of South Africa, together with the Project for
Conflict Resolution and Development, and aided by Lawyers for Human
Rights, took the matter to court in 2011. The court ruled that the
closure was unlawful but DHA appealed the decision.
`We were forced to shut down the office [in 2011] because of endemic
corruption that had taken root at the office,` said Deputy Minister of
Home Affairs Fatima Chohan. `The office was being abused by human
trafficking syndicates who were bringing in migrants who were not
refugees.`
Chohan said businesses around the old refugee office had a court order
to close the old office because they said it was a nuisance to their
businesses. She said the landlord also refused to renew the lease
agreement for the building they were renting.
`The department could not cope with the existing budget but we had to
abide by the court`s decision. The courts had spoken, we had to do
it,` she said.
Minister Gigaba, who was there to reopen the centre, responded to two
questions before an SABC reporter asked him about allegations of his
involvement in the department`s procurement process.
`The minister does not deal with the procurement process. That is the
question the director general can answer,` said Gigaba.
Gigaba spoke isiZulu to the reporter apparently to placate him. When
the reporter persisted, spokesperson Thabo Mokgola stopped questions.
The Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office is located at 10A Gibaud
Road, Telkom Building, Sydenham, Lakeside.