Refugee Law South Africa

Refugee Application

Any foreign national, holding a valid asylum transit visa, may submit an application for asylum in person at a Refugee Reception Office located in the Republic of South Africa. More…

Refugee Appeals Authority

The Refugee Appeals Authority hears appeals lodged against claims for asylum which have been rejected. A notice of appeal must be filed in person within 10 days of the rejection. More…

Permanent Residence

A refugee who has been a refugee for 10 years is eligible for permanent residence if the Standing Committee for Refugee Affairs certifies that he or she will remain a refugee indefinitely. More…

Judicial Review

The decisions made by the Department of Home Affairs and the Refugee Appeals Authority, or the failure to take a decision by one of these bodies, may be reviewed by the High Court. More…

Equality Courts

Asylum seekers or refugees who have been unfairly discriminated upon on the ground of their citizenship may institute proceedings before the Equality Courts. More…

Regularisation

Upon application, the Minister may regularise failed asylum seekers or refugees whose status has been withdrawn, when special circumstances justify such a decision. More…

Who is a refugee?

In South Africa, pursuant to section 3 of the Refugees Act, 130 of 1998, a person qualifies for refugee if that person:

  1. owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted by reason of his or her race, gender, tribe, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group, is outside the country of his or her nationality and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country, or, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his or her former habitual residence is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to it, or;
  2. owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or other events seriously disturbing public order in either a part or the whole of his or her country of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his or her place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his or her country of origin or nationality, or;
  3. is a spouse or dependent of a person contemplated in paragraph (1) or (2) above. Dependents include any unmarried dependent child or any destitute, aged or infirm member of the family of an asylum seeker or refugee.

Section 2 of the Refugees Act entrenches the international law obligation of non-refoulement and adds that no person may be compelled to return to or remain in a country where his or her life, physical safety or freedom would be threatened on account of external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or other events seriously disturbing  public order in any part or the whole of that country.

The Act specifies that “social group” includes a group of persons of particular gender, sexual orientation, disability, class or caste.

What we do?

RefugeeLaw assists asylum seekers and refugees and may:

Bill of Rights, 33(1)

“Everyone has the right to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair”

South Africa

“The applicant’s fear should be considered well-founded if he can establish, to a reasonable degree, that his continued stay in his country of origin has become intolerable to him for the reasons stated in the definition, or would for the same reasons be intolerable if he returned there”

Hathaway, J The Law of Refugee Status (Butterworths, 1991) 75

“Deportation to another state that would result in the imposition of a cruel, unusual or degrading punishment is in conflict with the fundamental values of the Constitution”

Abdi v Minister of Home Affairs (734/10) [2011] ZASCA 2 (15 February 2011) More…

“Banks may, in the absence of an official identification […], rely on the permits issued in terms of section 22 and section 24 of the Refugees Act as an alternative for asylum seekers and refugees when transacting with, or entering or conducting a business relationship with, such persons”

FICA, PCC n° 03A More…