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• `Clerical officers at the Cape Town Home Affairs Department have been described as ``gatekeepers” for turning away citizenship applicants with documentation that they perceived to be defective. Clerical officers at the Western Cape’s Home Affairs Department have been described as ``gatekeepers” who have acted unlawfully, as they refused to accept citizenship applications at the offices in Cape Town. De Saude Sadat Darbandi Immigration Attorneys (DSD Law) represented seven applicants who alleged they had problems associated with the submission of application forms in which Department of Home Affairs officials (screeners) refused to accept their applications, which they perceived to be defective. According to the applicants who have attempted to apply for citizenship, screeners insist on documents that are not prescribed by law; they are unreasonable, superfluous, or simply impossible to provide. `... Read more...

• `Although the Green Mamba has climbed a few places in global passport rankings, holders still need to overcome frustratingly high entry barriers to many sought-after destinations -While the South African passport has improved in global rankings, it still requires visas for most high-demand destinations.-For those without ancestral citizenship or familial options, several countries offer second passports through investment - at a significant cost.-Here are some countries that offer passports for purchase - and how much you can expect to pay.If there`s one thing South African travellers love to complain about, it`s visas. And with good reason.Although the Green Mamba has climbed a few places in global passport rankings, it still requires holders to overcome frustratingly high entry barriers for many sought-after destinations.For this reason, securing a passport from a country with greater visa-free access is the ultimate travel hack.The only catch? Unless you have ancestral ties to a country like the UK or, increasingly, Lithuania, your options are limited to marriage - or paying a significant sum of money.`... Read more...

• `The Western Cape High Court ruled on Thursday that ‘screeners` at the Cape Town Home Affairs offices cannot refuse to accept the public`s application forms that they believe are defective. The Western Cape High Court has ruled that screeners at Home Affairs offices who turn people away and refuse to take applications that they deem to be defective are acting unlawfully and outside the scope of their jobs.The case before court was brought by De Saude Sadat Darbandi Immigration Attorneys and a number of their clients who were turned away from Home Affairs offices.The applicants challenged a practice by the Department of Home Affairs to screen and then bar access to people who wish to file applications in terms of the Citizenship Act and/or Births and Deaths Registration Act.The focus of the case was specifically on Cape Town Home Affairs, but in her ruling, Judge Constance Nziweni said the general question was whether the department`s screeners could turn people away if they believed their application was defective.Aggrieved members of the public, the lawyers and the Home Affairs officials all agreed that people are frequently turned away. The legal argument on behalf of the aggrieved members of the public was that Home Affairs screeners are not legally authorised to make any decisions on these applications.`... Read more...

• `A number of human rights bodies are taking the Department of Home Affairs to court to stop the arrest of newcomer refugees at South African reception offices. (Photo: Leila Dougan) ``This case is fundamental to ensure that people are not returned to persecution, torture, violence or war,` said James Chapman, head of advocacy at the Scalabrini Centre. The Western Cape High Court has reserved judgment on a constitutional challenge by the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town - an immigrant organisation - and Lawyers for Human Rights to amendments to the Refugees Act that are used by Home Affairs officials to arrest and deport asylum seekers.The court also extended an interdict that prohibits the department from deporting any foreign national in SA if the foreign national has indicated an intention to apply for asylum.`... Read more...

• `A number of human rights bodies are taking the Department of Home Affairs to court to stop the arrest of newcomer refugees at South African reception offices. (Photo: Leila Dougan) ``This case is fundamental to ensure that people are not returned to persecution, torture, violence or war,` said James Chapman, head of advocacy at the Scalabrini Centre. The Western Cape High Court has reserved judgment on a constitutional challenge by the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town - an immigrant organisation - and Lawyers for Human Rights to amendments to the Refugees Act that are used by Home Affairs officials to arrest and deport asylum seekers.The court also extended an interdict that prohibits the department from deporting any foreign national in SA if the foreign national has indicated an intention to apply for asylum.The amendments to the Refugees Act that the court was asked to consider that persons who have ``committed an offence in relation to the fraudulent possession, acquisition or presentation of a South African identity card, passport, travel document, temporary residence visa or permanent residence permit`` can be excluded from applying for asylum.The amendments also exclude those who entered South Africa other than through a designated port of entry and failed to satisfy a refugee status determination officer that there were compelling reasons for such entry; and those who fail to report to the Refugee Reception Office within five days of entry into SA, even if they have a legal visa.``This [case] refers specifically to asylum seekers not entering the country through a designated port of entry and those who have not obtained a transit visa,`` said James Chapman, head of advocacy at the Scalabrini Centre. ``This case is fundamental to ensure that people are not returned to persecution, torture, violence or war.``According to papers before court supporting Scalabrini`s case, the practice of arresting and deporting asylum seekers without transit permits ``undermines the fundamental principles of both domestic and international human rights and refugee law``.From November 2023, new asylum seekers without a transit visa were arrested, detained and deported without an opportunity to undergo a refugee status determination interview. They are arrested after a preliminary interview by immigration officials who assess whether they have a good cause for failing to enter SA through a designated port of entry and obtain an asylum transit visa at the border.``Most applicants are found lacking good cause, resulting in their arrest for deportation. This process effectively denies individuals access to the asylum system, leaving them vulnerable to prolonged periods of detention and then deportation to their home countries, where they face persecution, violence, war, detention or even death. This is in direct violation of the principle of non-refoulement, the cornerstone of refugee protection,`` said Chapman.In 2023, the former minister of home affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said that 91 transit visas had been issued in two years, during which time there were close to 10,000 applications for asylum.Non-refoulement is a legal principle prohibiting states from transferring or removing individuals from their jurisdiction or effective control when there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be at risk of irreparable harm upon return to their home country, including persecution and torture.In February, Amnesty International, the Global Strategic Litigation Council for Refugee Rights, the International Detention Coalition and the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) joined the case.In papers before court, the HSF`s executive director, Naseema Fakir, argued that the law negatively affected the children of asylum seekers as they would either be returned to high-risk situations or be left behind when their parents were deported, leaving them stateless.The director-general of the Department of Home Affairs, Livhuwani Makhode, stated in papers before court that the application was misguided. He said the applicants cannot ``simply ignore the Immigration Act``.This Act states that a person who has an expired visa is an illegal foreigner and can be deported. This also applies to a person with no visa because they did not enter the country through an official port of entry.However, Chapman pointed out in his affidavit that ever since a provisional interdict was granted to stop the deportation of asylum seekers without valid transit visas, the system had been paralysed.He said the interdict did not require the department to accept new applications, so they just stopped doing so.``Asylum seekers are suffering great prejudice,`` he said.`... Read more...

• `To maintain a South African Business Visa, the visa holder must comply with several legal, financial, and operational requirements set out by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). Below is an explanation of what must be done:1. Compliance with Initial Visa Conditions When a business visa is granted, certain conditions must be met and maintained throughout the visa`s validity period. These conditions typically include:a) Minimum Investment Requirement - The applicant must have invested at least R5 million (previously R2.5 million in some cases or less if such investment was waived ) in their business. - This amount must be from foreign direct investment (FDI) and must be invested into the South African economy. - The funds should be used for business operations, including capital expenditures, inventory, infrastructure, and expansion.`... Read more...

• `Another aid superpower has fallen, taking with it all the indirect benefits South Africa accrued from do-good spending in its neighbourhood,.Until last Tuesday, the United Kingdom considered itself as an aid superpower.You could quibble about whether the numbers justified such a grand description, but the sentiment was sincere. During the toughest days following the 2008 financial crisis, a hard-nosed Conservative UK government resolutely held the foreign aid budget at 0.7% of national income, and it seemed genuinely embarrassed to cut that to 0.5% after a global pandemic demanded a torrent of money while shutting down big parts of the economy.Then, last week, the left-leaning administration slashed that 0.3%, which looks very much like a stretch target unlikely to be met as trade wars loom.But it is actually much worse than that. When the UK says ``foreign aid``, it includes spending on refugees, including domestically, on things such as hotel accommodation for people who reach Britain via small boats. Unless the government stops the flow of undocumented migrants (which it appears unable to do), the actual amount of money the UK will spend on feeding the hungry and healing the sick in places like southern Africa will be negligible.`... Read more...

• `Shortly after taking office in January, US President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid. - and asylum seekers in South Africa have received notices from the United States terminating their funding. - This comes after US President Donald Trump initially ordered a 90-day pause in foreign aid in January. - A human rights lawyer has said the cessation of this sort of funding will have a devastating impact. Just weeks after the United States invited Afrikaners to become refugees, the US Department of State`s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration has cut off funding to civil society organisations providing services to refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa.Shortly after taking office in January, US President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid. A month later, and despite pending litigation, the Trump administration has started terminating most US foreign aid contracts and grants, Reuters reported. Organisations in South Africa that provide services to assist refugees and asylum seekers who migrated to the southern tip of Africa have not been spared. `... Read more...

• `A senior official in the department of home affairs, who allegedly demanded kickbacks from service providers to approve their invoices, has been suspended.On Friday, Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber confirmed in an X post that Percy Tshabane, the department`s acting chief of director of employee engagement, had been suspended pending a thorough investigation into allegations that he solicited bribes to approve the payment of service providers. The official in question has been suspended and a full investigation is underway.Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber on Friday confirmed that Percy Tshabane has been suspended pending a thorough investigation.Noko Mashilo/Daily Sun City Press reported on 9 February that one lawyer, who identified himself as Mareng Mareng, had alleged that lawyers were being frustrated by the department`s chief director responsible for legal.`... Read more...

• `A Bloemfontein man, Vuyo Liphoko, has been struggling with the Department of Home Affairs for over 15 years, facing ongoing issues with his identity documents that have severely impacted his life.Liphoko’s ordeal began in 2003 when he was in Grade 10 in Botshabelo and applied for an identity document (ID) both privately and through his school. Despite repeated applications, he never received his ID before matriculating in 2006, which prevented him from pursuing tertiary education.“My birth certificate was an old handwritten one with just my birth date. I applied in Botshabelo and Welkom, where my family lives, but nothing happened,” said Liphoko.He was later advised to apply in Brandfort, his place of birth, yet still had no success. With no ID, he had to abandon his dreams of becoming a medical doctor and take on informal jobs. Liphoko eventually received his ID in 2007. However, another challenge arose in 2009 when his family attempted to amend their surname to his father’s. While his parents and siblings successfully changed theirs, Liphoko’s surname remained unchanged.`... Read more...