Coronavirus uncertainty affects asylum seekers

Source: News 24, 15/04/2020

A number of migrant and non-governmental organisations that help
asylum seekers have reported anecdotal incidents of these offices,
including the ones in Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and Durban, not
accepting new applicants.

The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town and the Nelson Mandela Refugee
Rights Centre in Port Elizabeth say they have heard of asylum
seekers being told that the refugee reception offices in these
cities won’t be taking new applicants until staff members have
been supplied with masks, gloves and hand sanitisers.

The Department of Home Affairs has not confirmed the measures that
have been put in place to deal with the arrival of asylum seekers,
with phone calls and WhatsApp messages to the minister’s
spokesperson, Siya Qoza, and the department’s media manager, David
Hlabane, going unanswered.

Linton Harmse, director of the Refugee Rights Centre, said the
closure of these offices could have a severely negative impact on
new asylum applicants as well as existing asylum seekers in South
Africa wanting to renew their permits.

“The impact will be wide. If you have a bank account and your
permit expires, the day it expires your bank account is frozen. It
will only be opened again if you come with a new permit. So if you
don’t get the new permit in that week or the next month, you will
be without your money,” he said.

“You won’t have access to your funds. Obviously, you would not be
able to buy food, pay school fees, buy sanitiser, go to the
doctor. You know everything costs money. That is one of the
immediate ways it will impact asylum seekers.

“That is if you are already documented,” Harmse continued. “There
are hundreds of asylum seekers who have not been documented yet.
They are given an appointment in 30 days’ time. They come then and
are just given another 30 days. They are not seen because [home
affairs] does not have staff capacity.”

Harmse warned that asylum seekers could either remain undocumented
or lose their legal status if their permits expire and they are
unable to renew them because of coronavirus-related delays.

Closed borders not the answer

Jean Bwasa, chairperson of The Right to Live and a leader of the
Congolese community in Johannesburg, said he is worried about
asylum seekers. “It will have a negative impact on new applicants
who are already in the country because they will become illegal.
Closing the borders is a good thing in that each and every country
wants to protect its citizens, but it goes against the goals to
have a borderless Africa.

“There are still countries in Africa where there is conflict and
war. We need to think of strategies other than closing the
borders,” he said.

Sally Gandar, head of advocacy and legal adviser at the Scalabrini
Centre, said the closure of ports of entry is a concern. “We call
on the government to ensure that the manner of implementation does
not violate South Africa’s obligations in terms of international
and domestic law and the principle of non-refoulement.”

Non-refoulement is a principle under international human rights
law which guarantees that no person be returned to a country where
they may face persecution or harm.

“In addition, if [refugee reception offices] are not accepting new
asylum applications, which would mean the asylum applicant does
not adhere to the five-day requirement in asylum transit visas,
the [department] must ensure that there is a general amnesty from
strict adherence to those provisions during this time,” Gandar
said. “This would be the correct and sensible strategy to take to
ensure protection of all persons within South Africa, and better
public health outcomes.

“Now, more than ever, the department needs to communicate more
effectively and urgently with this population. The implications of
ignoring or continuing to treat this part of our population as
invisible will be felt by all persons in South Africa. Health, and
by implication illness, knows no borders and a virus does not stop
and ask for an individual’s immigration status prior to being
transmitted. Vulnerable populations need to be specifically
addressed and catered for in the government’s response. Failure to
do this would simply mean that the response is not a comprehensive
one.”

Overcrowding a concern

Michael Clements, acting national director of Lawyers for Human
Rights (LHR), called for a moratorium on the detention and
deportation of migrants as well as unnecessary arrests and
detention for Schedule 1 offences.

“Detained individuals in overcrowded detention centres such as
Lindela Repatriation [Centre], police stations and remand prisons
are at high risk of contracting and spreading the virus. These
facilities are ill-equipped to deal with an outbreak of the
disease. This is especially true in relation to the elderly and
those suffering from chronic illnesses,” said Clements. “LHR
further calls on the Department of Home Affairs to present its
plan of action regarding the renewal of asylum seeker permits,
considering the president’s prohibition on gatherings of more than
100 people.”

Gandar added: “We understand that at least two refugee reception
offices, in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, are closed, apparently
until the staff are provided with protective gear. We have also
been told that the Durban office is no longer accepting new asylum
applicants, only processing renewals.

“While gloves, masks and hand sanitiser may provide some
protection to [department] staff members, it does not contain the
spread from person to person … and so these types of measures
would be wholly inadequate if they’re the only measure
implemented.

“This is particularly evident when one considers that, on any
single day, far more than 100 people try to access services at a
refugee reception office. The president has prohibited gatherings
of over 100 people and all non-essential travel. These
prohibitions should also be implemented in a way that ensures that
asylum seekers and refugees rights are respected, protected,
promoted and fulfilled,” Gandar said.

Refugees in limbo

The International Organisation for Migration and the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) have meanwhile
announced that they would temporarily suspend the resettlement of
refugees.

In a statement on the UNHCR’s website, the organisations said: “As
countries drastically reduce entry into their territories owing to
the Covid-19 global health crisis, and restrictions around
international air travel are introduced, travel arrangements for
resettling refugees are currently subject to severe disruptions.
Some states have also placed a hold on resettlement arrivals given
their public health situation, which impacts on their capacity to
receive newly resettled refugees.

“Refugee families are being directly impacted by these quickly
evolving regulations in the course of their travel, with some
experiencing extensive delays while others have been stranded or
separated from family members.”

During a press briefing on Tuesday, Minister of Home Affairs Aaron
Motsoaledi spoke about the possibility of renewing long-term visas
that are due to expire soon. He said the department would “very
gladly renew visas” until July, but people would have to give a
good reason for wanting to stay in South Africa. He said nothing
about refugees or asylum seekers.

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