Asylum seekers in SA fear arrest and deportation, but can’t access help or documents

By Kimberly Mutandiro

18 Jul 2024

Court battle looms with Lawyers for Human Rights set to take this issue to the high court next month.

An Ethiopian man who has been living and working in Diepsloot, Gauteng, for nearly four years says he fears being arrested each time he walks out of his home. This is because he has been struggling for years to obtain legal asylum documents.

Ahmed (24, name changed to protect identity) said he arrived in South Africa during the lockdown in 2020 after running away from political unrest in his hometown of Tigray, in which thousands of people, particularly young men, were killed.

Refugee reception offices were still closed when he arrived, so Ahmed could not immediately apply for asylum. In 2021, he submitted an application online but did not get a response.

He said he has been arrested by police on more than one occasion for not having the proper paperwork, but is always released when he shows them proof that he is awaiting feedback on the application he submitted.

In 2023, Ahmed was arrested again and detained at the Desmond Tutu Refugee Centre. He travelled there to get answers about his pending application, but was arrested instead. He was later released after being booked for another interview. He has returned to the centre several times since then, but has yet to get an asylum permit.

“I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid of being deported because back home in Ethiopia it is not safe,” he said.

Another Ethiopian national, living in Diepsloot, Salmar (name changed to protect his identity), arrived in South Africa in May 2024. Police detained him a few days after his arrival. He was released on bail after explaining his intention to apply for asylum.

Read more: Government must rethink its Draconian white paper on refugees and migrants

He has also been to the refugee centre several times and was turned away each time without getting any help.

Ahmed and Salmar are among more than 10,000 asylum seekers and refugees who have sought help from Lawyers for Human Rights since 2020.

According to Daniel Sherrif, leader of the Ethiopian community in Diepsloot, five new asylum seekers have been detained by the police, while five others are being held at the Lindela Repatriation Centre due to their inability to apply for asylum documents.

This is in addition to five other Congolese nationals also being held at Lindela because they have not been able to get help to apply for documents.

Court battle looms

In May, the Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town, represented by Lawyers for Human Rights, approached the courts for an interdict to prevent the authorities from arresting and detaining new asylum seekers, the lawyers said in a statement. This matter will be argued at the High Court in Cape Town on 27 August.

Meanwhile, Lawyers for Human Rights has raised concerns with the frequency of cases in which asylum applicants are arrested while at or on their way to refugee reception centres.

“New applicants for asylum have been subject to arrest, detention, and deportation without the opportunity to undergo a refugee status determination interview. This process effectively denies individuals access to the asylum system, leaving them vulnerable to deportation to their home countries, where they face persecution, violence, war, detention, or even death.”

Sharon Ekambaram, who manages Lawyers for Human Rights, said the organisation’s offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, and Musina have been inundated with more than 10,000 cases of asylum seekers and refugees facing documentation challenges since 2020.

Embakaram said most of the asylum seekers they have been assisting have yet to have their applications finalised. This adds to the Department of Home Affairs’ already-existing refugee backlog, said Ekambaram.

“Home Affairs is doing nothing to make the process of applying for asylum and refugee documents accessible, and this must change,” she told GroundUp.

Claudia Marie Bernard Kayitane, the director of the immigrant advocacy organisation Pax Afrika Network, said: “Laws that observe the right to protection for refugees continue to fail us. A lack of documentation exposes them to increased insecurity.”

Requests for comment sent to the Department of Home Affairs since 21 June have received no response. DM

First published by GroundUp.

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Court battle looms