The Pretoria High Court reserved judgement on an urgent application in which 22 Afghan nationals are seeking asylum in South Africa on Tuesday. The Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, has accused a US-based NGO of using the legal system to undermine and ambush South Africa’s sovereignty.
HOME AFFAIRS FIGHTING AFGHAN ASYLUM ORDER IN COURT
According to SAFM News, the Afghan people fear persecution and death at the hands of the Taliban regime if they return home.
On Saturday, SABC News reported that the court order granting the asylum seekers permission to enter South Africa was handed down after lawyers representing a US-based NGO, The Lifeline Foundation, approached the court.
Motsoaledi reacted to the order and said the government would be opposing the order.
“Yesterday, they went to court to get an interim order that we must allow these people to come in, the return date is on 7 March, but that court order has been granted that we must allow them in, but the judge realised that we were not in court,” said Motsoaledi on 18 February.
“We were not in court because they manipulated the law and processes because they know that we are in Pretoria, but they served a junior person in Beitbridge through an email, and the person was in the field and only saw the email after 4 hours, and after 4 hours they had already been in court and got the order but the judge realised that we were not there and allowed us that we can do something within 24 hours.”
According to the Minister, Home Affairs officials at Beitbridge reportedly received a letter from a law firm on 14 February that informed them of 22 clients who would be arriving.
“We are warning them that you must be given a transit visa to enter South Africa and apply for asylum. They never named the clients. They didn’t even mention where they came from,” he said.
The Minister said the Afghan nationals arrived suddenly and informed officials they wanted to enter South Africa as their lawyers had given prior notice. They were reportedly in possession of visas from Zimbabwe.
Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) spokesperson Clayson Monyela weighed in on the matter via his Twitter account on Tuesday morning. He said South Africa’s asylum system is being abused.
In 2021, DIRCO said the country was not in a position to accommodate Afghan refugees who had fled their country.
“The South African government notes the overtures made to the country to consider receiving a number of Afghan refugees who have sought refuge in Pakistan
“The South African government is unfortunately not in a position to accommodate such a request,” read the DIRCO statement.
In August 2021, the Taliban took back control of Afghanistan about 20 years after the original regime had been toppled.
According to EWN, Motsoaledi suggested that giving Afghan nationals asylum could pose a safety risk. The Minister seemingly believes there is a possibility the Taliban would target South Africa for accepting asylum seekers.
“If there are people that are in danger in Afghanistan and they rush to South Africa, and the Taliban decides to follow them here, isn’t the US the most powerful country to defend them and protect them?
“As they are the ones who went to Afghanistan to take over from the Taliban, not us because, you see, we don’t have any military power,” Motsoaledi said to EWN.
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