Cape Town - Home Affairs must answer why it refused to open the Refugee Reception Office in Cape Town, the DA spokesperson on Home Affairs, Haniff Hoosen, said.
This after he conducted an oversight visit to the office in the Foreshore. Hoosen spoke to asylum seekers who shared their frustrations with the process as well as the conditions at the current premises, which pose a health hazard to both asylum seekers and staff.
“Clearly, the failure by Minister (Malusi) Gigaba (of Home Affairs) to obey the courts is compromising the ability of the department to ensure asylum applications are processed and finalised efficiently,” Hoosen said
He added that while they conducted the visit he saw security was a serious issue at the facility as the previous contract with the security company came to an end,
“This has forced staff to act as security guards to manage access control which puts their safety at risk.”
Hoosen said that they would be writing to the chairperson of the home affairs portfolio committee to request that the minister be summoned to account for why these reception centres had not been opened.
“A DA government would immediately address the criteria for the appointment of Refugee Status Determination Officers, who process and make decisions on asylum applications, as well as increase support to these critical front line decision-makers to ease the backlog,” Hoosan said.
The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town and the Somali Association of South Africa have launched a case against the Department of Home Affairs for not complying with orders of the court to open the Refugee Reception Office in Cape Town.
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