Home Affairs should not grant Gavric refugee status
Tomorrow the Department of Home Affairs will decide whether or not it will grant refugee status to Serbian fugitive, Dobrosav Gavric (see Amabhungane report).
Mr Gavric faces a 35-year jail sentence in his home country for two counts of murder and one of assassination.
The Refugees Act, No. 130 of 1998, states that refugee status should be granted on the grounds of an applicant's life being in danger due to persecution as a result of their race, tribe, nationality, religion, political opinion or membership of a particular social group; or if there is war in their home country.
Mr Gavric meets none of these criteria.
I will today be writing to the Minister to urge her to reject Mr Gavric's application on three grounds: