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Asylum seekers face challenges with DHA`s online system - Lawyers for Human Rights

Source: News24, 09/12/2022

Asylum seekers are not getting the required documentation timeously, leaving them vulnerable to deportation. (Archive photo by Ashraf Hendricks, GroundUp)

• Refugee and asylum seekers face challenges with the Department of Home Affairs` online system, Lawyers for Human Rights told the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs.

• It means they don`t get the required documentation timeously, leaving them vulnerable to deportation.

• Furthermore, there is a reluctance to process children, exposing them to `structural xenophobia`.

Refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa have problems with the Department of Home Affairs` online system, leaving them vulnerable to deportation and their children to `structural xenophobia`, Lawyers for Human Rights told Parliament.
Lindokuhle Mdabe of Lawyers for Human Rights told the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday that they had noted several challenges since the department introduced its online system.

The system came online in April 2021, GroundUp reported previously.

Mdabe said newcomers into the country intending to apply for refugee status had to do so through the online system.

The first problem, according to Mdabe, was a lack of internet access, coupled with language barriers.

Even after they lodged their claims online, they might have to wait up to two months for an interview. This rendered them vulnerable to deportation, because they had no documentation or proof that they were legally in the country.

Often, there weren`t enough translators available for interviews, and in some cases, asylum seekers had been told to arrange their own translators.

Mdabe said non-governmental organisations, like themselves, were inundated with requests to perform functions the department was supposed to do. In their case, they had to provide affidavits and ensure people complied with requirements.

Furthermore, Lawyers for Human Rights detected a reluctance from the department to process children. When parents were in the refugee or asylum seeker programme, and they wanted their children to join, the children would not be joined, despite their applications.

This leaves children �` minors �` without documents, which means they experienced what Mdabe called `structural xenophobia`, meaning their socio-economic rights were limited because they did not have documentation.

Mdabe said they had written to schools and hospitals, informing them that these children had rights, but the practice of insisting on documents persisted.

`We also understand this is not the fault of the refugees,` he said.

He added that the department also failed to implement sections of the Immigration Act, court orders, and judgments.

ANC MP Asnath Molekwa said: `The children cannot suffer because of the parents` sins.`

She said the committee should determine whether there was a programme with a timeframe to deal with those issues.

DA MP Adrian Roos said compliance with court orders and judgments seemed to be a big problem with the Department of Home Affairs.

He said the committee needed to get a list of all the related court orders and judgments

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