Minister must investigate unlawful detentions at Lindela

The DA will today request that the Minister of Home Affairs, Naledi Pandor, investigate the continued unlawful detention of non-nationals at Lindela Repatriation Centre. A reply to a DA parliamentary question shows that the Department is failing to handle asylum matters and detaining non-nationals unlawfully.

According to the reply, the Department was involved in 1762 legal cases in 2012/13, an increase from 1099 in 2011/12. The reply shows that many of these cases are due to the fact that the Department continuously detains non-nationals unlawfully.

In the majority of cases where court orders have been handed down, these relate to unlawful detention. Of the 368 judgments/court orders handed down in 2012/13, 132 were court orders to release applicants from Lindela so that they could apply for asylum and 41 were court orders to release applicants as they had been detained for longer than 120 days. By law, the Department cannot detain people for longer than 120 days no matter what their immigration status is.

The South African Human Rights Commission has already investigated the Department numerous times for conditions at Lindela and unlawful detentions but their recommendations have clearly been ignored by the Department if this continues to be a problem year after year.

The Minister must now make this a priority to investigate why her Department continues to disobey the law and violate human rights.

Statement issued by Manny de Freitas MP, DA Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, June 27 2013

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