PASSOP welcomes the interim court judgement in the matter of Abebe Legesse Biru and Others V Ministry of Home Affairs 1541/13. The UCT Refugee Law Clinic took an urgent application to court to stop the practice of limiting the number of extensions on an asylum permit. The Court ordered that the two clients must have their permits extended by no later than Thursday the 14th and that their files must be transferred to Cape Town to allow for their further extensions pending final relief.

Home Affairs should extend asylum permits for asylum seekers wherever they are in South Africa. At PASSOP we have recently been inundated with cases of asylum seekers who applied in Johannesburg but are now based in Cape Town. The Cape Town Refugee Reception Office was refusing to extend their documents, instructing them to go back to their office of application in Johannesburg. The time and expense of travelling between Cape Town and Johannesburg every three months to have documents extended is untenable for many people. We believe it is unreasonable for Home Affairs to refuse to extend documents for asylum seekers because they applied at another office in South Africa.

We fully support the UCT Refugee Law Clinic and the applicants in this important court case and we hope the court will give a favorable and progressive final decision on the matter. Hopefully this case and cases like it will hope motivate Home Affairs to document people who obtained their initial permit at another Refugee Reception Office.