Effective tomorrow Monday 16 April 2012, Home Affairs Refugee Reception offices will operate for extended hours from Monday to Friday 07h30 to 17h00. This applies to offices at Marabastad, the Pretoria Showgrounds, Cape Town, Durban and Musina.
In addition, services will be rendered at Refugee Reception offices on Saturdays from 8h00 to 13h00.
Other changes in the operations of the Refugee Reception offices include the segmentation of clients according to regions.
In this regard, services will be rendered to asylum seekers according to the following schedule:
- Southern African Development Community (SADC) nationals: Monday and Tuesday
- East Africa: Wednesday and Saturday
- West Africa: Thursday
- Asia and other countries: Friday
The department will also be collaborating with members of the South African Police Services to assist with queue management at Refugee Reception offices. This will further be supported by additional deployments of Inspectorate officials to the offices.
These changes in the operation at Refugee Reception offices come against the background of an audit of our operations. This process revealed a backlog in the review of decisions by the Refugees Appeal Board and the Standing Committee on Review Affairs which amounts to 87 602 and 68 740 respectively.
The department reiterates its unwavering commitment to ensuring applications for asylum in South Africa are adjudicated and finalised efficiently so that we may indeed fulfill our international and moral obligations.
