The Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Migration has moved to quell widespread confusion and misinformation surrounding the Constitutional Court judgment on asylum applications, stressing that the ruling does not automatically grant refugee status or permanent residence to people entering South Africa.
The clarification follows an urgent IMC meeting on Wednesday night after the implementation of the judgment led to an influx of people seeking access to Refugee Reception Offices, with long queues reported outside Home Affairs facilities.
Addressing a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday, the IMC said the Constitutional Court judgment, handed down in July in the matter of Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town and Another v Minister of Home Affairs and Others, must not be interpreted as legalising unlawful migration or giving people an automatic right to remain in the country.
The Court declared certain provisions of the Refugees Act unconstitutional because they prevented some people from accessing the asylum system solely on procedural grounds. These included people, who had entered South Africa irregularly, did not possess an asylum transit visa or failed to report to a Refugee Reception Office within the prescribed period.
The Court found that such procedural barriers could result in people being excluded from the asylum process before their claims were properly assessed.
The IMC said the judgment, therefore, restores access to the asylum determination process, rather than automatically conferring refugee status.
“Importantly, the judgment does not grant refugee status or permanent residence automatically to anyone who enters South Africa, nor does it legalise unlawful migration.
“It simply requires that individuals claiming asylum be allowed access to the asylum determination process so that their claims can be properly assessed in terms of the law,” IMC Chairperson, Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, said while delivering the statement.
The IMC stressed that applicants must still undergo the formal Refugee Status Determination Process and meet the requirements of South African law.
“Applications that are fraudulent, abusive, unfounded or do not meet the requirements of the Refugees Act will still be rejected through the established legal processes,” Kubayi said.
