Stakeholder Dialogue: Refugee Reception Office Litigation and Advocacy Strategies

In April 2019, activists and civil society organisations held a stakeholder dialogue in Cape Town to discuss problems facing refugees in South Africa. The last eight years have seen the Department of Home Affairs shutting down Refugee Reception Offices (RROs) in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng, leaving refugees with fewer options, and needing to travel long distances to register their refugee status. Cases have been heard by the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeals that highlight challenges that asylum seekers face due to the closures, with orders handed down for the Department of Home Affairs to reopen the RROs in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. The Stakeholder Dialogue sought to take stock of these challenges and to find ways to intensify advocacy efforts for refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa.