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Home Affairs withdraws asylum directive
The Department of Home Affairs has withdrawn a directive instructing refugee reception offices to accept asylum applications regardless of how applicants entered the country, following overcrowding at its facilities and violent anti-immigrant protests in Soweto and Durban.
The directive, issued on 28 September 2026, was intended to implement a July Constitutional Court judgment in the case involving the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town and the Minister of Home Affairs.
According to The Citizen, the department said the immediate implementation of the ruling ‘led to serious consequences that could not have been foreseen in the Court order’.
The department cited overwhelmed refugee reception offices, risks to officials and emerging threats to public safety and order as reasons for withdrawing the directive.
Home Affairs maintained that the directive was an operational measure issued by the director-general’s office without the knowledge of the minister or other political office-bearers, EWN reported.
Permanent residence
The withdrawal comes after protests over asylum applications escalated into violence in Soweto, Johannesburg, and Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, on Thursday.
The Associated Press reported that at least 24 vehicles were set alight in the two cities, while shops were looted. Acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Puleng Dimpane condemned the violence, saying: ‘The right to raise concerns and to protest does not give anyone the right to commit crime.’
The Constitutional Court’s July ruling declared certain provisions of the Refugees Act unconstitutional, removing procedural barriers that could prevent asylum seekers from having their applications considered because of irregular entry or missed reporting deadlines.
However, the ruling does not automatically grant refugee status or permanent residence to applicants.
Home Affairs said it would begin a fresh process to determine the most appropriate operational approach to implementing the court order. The department has yet to announce the details of its revised arrangements.
The withdrawal of the directive does not reverse the Constitutional Court’s judgment, leaving the department with the task of balancing its legal obligations to asylum seekers with operational capacity and public safety concerns.
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