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...
November Press Review
National Coverage No country, no future: The bleak plight of stateless children in South Africa Daily Maverick – 29 November 2020 Undocumented children in South Africa fall into a perpetual cycle of statelessness – many children whose parents are asylum seekers become stateless when administrative duties are neglected, or under the law they are unable to register for citizenship. Stateless children are unable to access primary education, write matric...
October Press Review
NATIONAL COVERAGE Cape Town refugee crisis far from over amid government squabbles Times Live – 22 October 2020 In October 2019, refugees and asylum seekers started occupying Greenmarket Square in central Cape Town to protest against xenophobia. A year later, the crisis is far from over as neither the city nor the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is taking responsibility to find durable solutions for the protesters. Since the beginning of...
Press Review September 2020
NATIONAL COVERAGE Costly protection: Corruption in South Africa’s asylum-seeking system Lawyers for Human Rights, Scalabrini Centre & Corruption Watch – 17 September 2020 Lawyers for Human Rights, the Scalabrini Centre and Corruption Watch published a report tackling the issue of corruption in South Africa’s asylum system. Their reports, titled “Costly protection: corruption in South Africa’s asylum-seeking system”, highlights systemic governance weaknesses in South African Department of Home Affairs resulting in widespread...
Press Review August 2020
NATIONAL COVERAGE South Africa’s Border Management Authority dream could be a nightmare Institute for Security Studies – 11 August 2020 South Africa passed a new Border Management Authority (BMA) Act, intended to improve efficiencies by providing a single authority to oversee all aspects of the border environment. Border control was previously tasked between seven different government departments. In the effort to centralize responsibility, concerns of poor management, abuse, and...
Press Review June 2020
NATIONAL COVERAGE Refugee Act Amendments increase probability of unlawful detention says report DailyMaverick.co.za - June 11th 2020 Description: Amendments to the Refugee Act which came into effect on the 1st of January increased the probability of asylum seekers and refugees being unlawfully detained and deported. According to a report published on the 11th of June. The inclusion of a new amendment allows for the detention and removal of an asylum seeker or refugee on vague grounds of “threat to...
