May 2021 - Press Review
National Coverage Victory for refugees after High Court orders reopening of home affairs reception office News24 – 19/05/2021 Acting Judge Alma de Wet found the Department of Home Affairs in violation of a Supreme Court of Appeal judgement in an order issued on Tuesday. The Scalabrini Centre and the Somali Association for South Africa were represented by the Legal Resource Centre (LRC), which took the case to court. There has been on ongoing...

April 2021 - Press Review
National Coverage No such thing as refugee camps in SA, says Motsoaledi More than 100 refugees have been helped by the UN to return to their home country, according to Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi. While the UN had offered to repatriate those who wanted to return to their countries, the Minister said that he had received word two hours before the briefing that 121 of those protesting in the Mother...

March 2021 - Press Review
National Coverage Issues around migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa are politicised, say experts. Daily Maverick – 29 March 2021 Experts and panellists speaking on migration and human rights at the annual Human Rights Festival, held virtually, organized by Constitution Hill and The Polisee Room, addressed how discussions about migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in South Africa have become politicized. South Africa, according to Mukoni Ratshitanga, an...

February 2021 – Press Review
National Coverage Migrants in SA fear being excluded from the Covid-19 vaccination campaign. Daily Maverick - 5 February 2021 While most South Africans are looking forward to the distribution of the vaccines, the migrant community is growing increasingly concerned about the vaccine’s availability to them. Dr Zweli Mkhize, South Africa's Minister of Health, said on the 30th of January that only South African citizens would be receive the COVID 19 vaccine during...

January 2021 - Press Review
NATIONAL COVERAGE Violent vocabularies and hypernationalism: #PutSouthAfricansFirst is misguided xenophobia Daily Maverick – 4 January 2021 Social media and the ‘real world’ are mutually constitutive realities, and the emergence of hyper-nationalist and seemingly patriotic hashtags such as #WeWantOurCountryBack are both reflective and productive of xenophobia in South...

December 2020 - Press Review
NATIONAL COVERAGE Xenophobia surges as Covid-19 slams the South African economy Bloomberg – 12 December 2020 The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a tragic toll on the South African economy, and pushed unemployment to a 17-year high. This reality triggered the emergence of widespread xenophobia, as anti-immigrant groups have staged demonstrations to demand for the mass deportation of foreigners. During a protest in Johannesburg, the chairwoman of the South Africa First party, Victoria Mamogobo, requested the deportation of...
