Helen Suzman Foundation welcomes ConCourt ruling on Refugees Act
South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled asylum seekers cannot be denied access due to missing documents or missing the five-day reporting deadline.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has ruled key Refugees Act provisions unconstitutional, ensuring asylum seekers cannot be denied access for lacking documents or missing the five-day reporting deadline.
The Helen Suzman Foundation has welcomed the Constitutional Court judgment declaring two provisions of the Refugees Act unconstitutional.
The apex court has found that any person seeking asylum cannot be denied access to the system for failing to provide the required documents or report to a refugee reception office within the stipulated five-day window.
It handed down its ruling on Tuesday.
The Act stipulated that asylum seekers must enter South Africa through a designated port of entry, where they would receive an asylum transit visa valid for 5 days. Within that period, they must present themselves at one of the five designated refugee reception offices.
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The case was brought by the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, Lawyers for Human Rights and other organisations.
The court found that any person seeking asylum cannot be denied access to the system simply for failing to provide the required documents or to report to a refugee reception office within the stipulated five-day window.
It reaffirmed that every asylum application must be assessed on its individual merits.
The foundation’s Chanel van der Linde told Channel Africa the ruling reaffirms South Africa's international and constitutional obligations towards refugees.
“What this will have the consequence of now is that when someone comes into South Africa as an asylum seeker, and they aren't able to get an asylum seeker transit visa, they will not have to first prove how they entered the country and why it is that they never acquired this permit in the first place, which is fortunate for them, it’s less administrative hurdles.”
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