Not only do these changes make the application for asylum easy and convenient, they also remove rampant touting and corruption that was being experienced outside Marabastad.
The newly introduced procedure for asylum seeker process requires the applicants deposit their identification in a designated box and wait to be called by name before they can go into the Refugee Reception Centre.
Previously and to date, there have been allegations of rampant corruption that favours those who pay up to R500 to get preference and avoid the long lines that characterize the Marabastad Home Affairs Department.
Zimbabweans who are processed on Mondays and Tuesdays have been known to queau for weeks on end before they are able to be interviewed. This scenario has led to untold hardships where women have allegedly been raped, people robbed and suffer the vicissitudes of weather as they are forced to sleep out in the open field for days on end.
ZEF is requesting that the DHA implement longer validity asylum seeker permit periods so that applicants are not forced to frequent Refugee Reception Offices.
To reduce corruption even further, we urge the Department of Home Affairs to introduce a uniform period of extension for the permits. We urge the DHA to adjudicate refugee applications in the shortest possible time as some applicants have been on asylum seeker permits for over fifteen years and this leaves their lives in a limbo. Lastly, we thank the Department and all its officials for an improved system of consultation with civil society organizations to introduce efficient and smoother procedures in the asylum and refugee process.
Post published in: Africa News