The DA is calling for Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to appear before MPs to explain how her department will tackle a massive backlog in refugee applications.
“This is in light of the proposed Refugees Amendment Bill, which we believe will not address the substantive problems that affect refugee applications … currently taking up to four years to finalise,” Democratic Alliance home affairs spokesperson Annette Lovemore said in a statement on Thursday.
Lovemore said she would be writing to the chairperson of the home affairs portfolio committee, asking that the minister appear before it.
She said that according to the latest UN Refugee Agency Global Report, released in June this year, South Africa “continued to be the country that receives the largest number of asylum applications in the world, with 222 000 applications submitted in 2009 alone”.
Lovemore said the DA had serious doubts as to whether the new Bill, and the coming into force of the Refugees Amendment Act of 2008, would make any meaningful difference to the situation.
Lovemore said figures for the 2009/10 financial year showed:
- the department received 364 638 applications for asylum;
- a total of 9 000 applications were approved; and,
- a total of 131 961 applications were rejected.
“Thus, 223 677 (or 61% of the applications) were not processed within the year,” she said.
On Thursday afternoon, the department of home affairs briefed the committee on the Refugees Amendment Bill, which was mainly aimed at clarifying how applications for refugee status should be dealt with.
Director general Mkuseli Apleni told MPs that among the problems faced by his department, which the Bill sought to address, was “limited capacity”. This had resulted in a protracted appeals process.
The department’s systems were also “clogged” with applications for asylum lodged by people who were economic migrants.
“Applications for asylum from persons whose claims do not fall within … the Refugees Act are clogging the asylum process.”
The department planned a phased-in approach to the problems it faced, aimed at the “overhaul” of its asylum-seeker management system.
While the first phase would deal with the Bill’s proposed amendments, phase two would include a review of South Africa’s immigration policy. – Sapa