Pretoria - Most of the foreign nationals evicted from the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) offices in Brooklyn, Pretoria, last Friday have been accommodated on a farm just outside of Bronkhorstspruit.
Professor Lee Stone, who has been assisting the refugees for almost a year, said she was determined to ensure the five refugees who appeared in court yesterday along with their husbands were not deported to their countries of birth. She disclosed that at least 66 of the group was on a farm far-east of Pretoria.
“We are going to apply to court demanding they not be deported because that would constitute a violation of the principle of non refoulement, meaning you cannot send someone back to a place where their life is threatened or where they are to face harm. The Congo and the South Kivu area in particular where this group is from, is not appropriate for them to be sent back home.
“We are hoping the judge will see that the circumstances merit the granting of refugee status,” she said.
Stone said what was happening to the group was characteristic of South Africa’s fundamental change in approach to refugees over the past three decades. In 1998 the government seemed entirely committed to protecting and upholding the rights of refugees, but over time and due to competition between poor South Africans, refugees were seen as a threat to scarce resources, she said.
As a result, there had been an incremental process of Home Affairs rejecting applications as much as it could, with recent statistics pointing towards as many as 96% of applications being rejected without any real consideration of the circumstances, she said. “South Africa has become known as a reluctant and resistant host to refugees.”
Five of the refugees were to appear in the Hatfield Magistrate’s Court today. Eight were initially set to appear, but only five were in the dock yesterday. Three refugees were released.
Tarayi Catherine Tuliya and her two sons, as well as two other women, were kept in custody facing charges of Contravention of the Immigration Act.
The matter could not proceed yesterday as the court required the services of a Swahili interpreter, and for Lawyers for Human Rights counsel to be called in to represent the group, after all five indicated they did not want to use the services of Legal Aid representatives.
Talking with the assistance of her son, an emotional Tuliya, originally from South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said it was painful to see what was happening to her and her family. “I did not want to run away from my country, I was forced to run away. South Africa is also chasing us away.”
The group said they camped outside the UNHCR offices because they wanted help with their documentation. “We were telling the UNHCR for a long time we are not safe. They were telling us to go back to the community,” said Rutu Masanso. The matter was rolled over to today for confirmation of their addresses, a Swahili interpreter as well as for Lawyers for Human Rights counsel to appear on their behalf.
Pretoria News