Home Affairs pulls asylum directive after 14 vehicles burn in Durban

The Department of Home Affairs has withdrawn the directive it issued on 28 September setting out how refugee reception offices should process asylum applications, after protests and violence disrupted its offices in Durban and Soweto.

The directive was issued by the office of Director-General Tommy Makhode to give effect to the Constitutional Court’s judgment of 7 July in the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town matter. The department says it was an operational measure, issued without the knowledge of the Minister of Home Affairs or any other political office-bearer.

In a statement, the department said claims that the directive was politically motivated were categorically untrue. It said the directive stemmed from a court case the department had opposed, and that the attempt to implement the judgment immediately produced consequences the court order could not have foreseen.

Among those consequences, the department listed: refugee reception offices overwhelmed within days of the directive being issued, Home Affairs officials placed at risk, and serious threats to public safety and order. It said it would now begin a fresh process to find the most appropriate operational approach to comply with the Constitutional Court’s order, and reaffirmed its respect for the judiciary and the rule of law.

As The South African reported on 9 October, the withdrawal followed protests and violence in Durban and Soweto.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said preliminary reports indicated that a group marching against gender-based violence in the Durban CBD joined members of March and March at the Home Affairs offices on Che Guevara Road after completing its march. March and March is an anti-illegal-immigration group that had been calling for the directive to be withdrawn.

Netshiunda said the group reportedly proceeded down Dr Pixley kaSeme Street towards the Home Affairs offices, where the anti-illegal-immigration group was demonstrating. He said information at that stage suggested one of them was allegedly assaulted by a foreign national and his leg was broken, and that it was not yet clear what sparked the alleged assault. The group became angry and violence erupted, he said, resulting in the burning of at least 14 vehicles.

Three foreign nationals were arrested in connection with the alleged assault. A lodge building and a warehouse were partially burnt, and the fires were extinguished.

Operations at several Home Affairs branches that process refugee and asylum applications were disrupted by the protests. At the Che Guevara Road office, members of March and March confronted asylum seekers.

No group, movement or individual may enforce immigration law. That authority belongs to the state. Assault, arson, public violence and unlawful deprivation of liberty are crimes under South African law, and a blockade that denies a patient treatment is a crime and not a protest tactic.

The department has not said when the fresh process will produce a new operational approach, or what it will look like. Its statement reaffirmed its commitment to an operationally appropriate and sustainable method of complying with the court order.

For anyone with a pending asylum application, the practical effect of the withdrawal is that the processing rules set out on 28 September no longer apply. The department has not said what will replace them, or what applicants should do in the interim. Refugee reception offices in Durban and elsewhere resume processing under the previous arrangements until a new directive is issued.

The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town brought the case that produced the 7 July judgment. The department opposed it.

Source: The South African, BREAKING: Home Affairs withdraws asylum directive after violent protests