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Refugee and migrant rights project

Established in 1996 the LHR Refugee and Migrant Rights Project is a specialist programme that advocates, strengthens and enforces the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and other marginalised categories of migrants in South Africa.
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Refugee And Migrant Rights Project News

Refugee And Migrant Rights Project Publications

The purpose of this booklet is to provide an overview of LHR’s litigation activities and our role in public interest litigation in South Africa. The booklet has been designed thematically and looks at past LHR cases with a view of planning for future projects and activities to develop human rights jurisprudence in South Africa.

This report highlights serious human rights concerns in South Africa's immigration detention facilities, in particular the private operated facility at Lindela in Krugersdorp and  the detention centre operated by the SAPS in Musina. The report reveals that despite South Africa's obligations in domestic and international law to comply with basic minimum standards of detention, there are serious violations of these most basic rights ranging from lack of access to drinking water to the most serious violations of torture in detention, which occur with little oversight or legal recourse. The report also raises concerns about the unlawful detention and deportation of bona fide asylum seekers and refugees, and their lack of access to the legal protections guaranteed to them in law.

Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), together with several interested organisations commissioned a survey of Zimbabwean asylum seekers and refugees living in South Africa. The aim of the study was to make a submission to the Minister of Home Affairs to provide a platform for meaningful engagement with the DHA and national institutions such as the South African Human Rights Commission, in order to raise critical awareness and make practical recommendations on specific human rights problems faced by the asylum and the refugee community in South Africa.

This background paper is intended to contribute to the discussion by presenting a summary of key issues and response options, on the basis of expert analysis of international experiences. Without prescribing a specific governmental response, this document argues that some kind of coherent response is necessary at this point in time, and sets out a framework for evaluating the appropriateness and potential impacts of different responses.
The 2008 CoRMSA report is dedicated to promote the rights of foreigners in SA. The findings of the report have been compiled over a six month period using surveys, in-depth interviews and a review of relevant documents and policies.