CT home affairs 'chaotic'

2007-10-17 16:13

Cape Town - The Home Affairs Department's refugee offices in Cape Town was a "chaotic" place at which refugees were treated like animals, a parliamentary committee said on Wednesday.

The MPs, on an unannounced visit to the refugee offices on the Foreshore, also discovered that refugees were being illegally detained by officials.

Members of the home affairs' portfolio committee rescued a refugee who was detained for several hours in a cage inside a filthy toilet.

At the facility there was the most "inhumane treatment of refugees by the department's officials", the MPs said.

Asylum seekers' applications were strewn all over the offices. Further, the committee found there was not even a single home affairs official attending to the scores of refugees who were in the offices.

The offices had been virtually taken over by what the committee chairperson Patrick Chauke described as "syndicates", who claim to be members of some NGOs.

It was difficult to distinguish between a genuine home affairs official and members of the syndicates, as the latter had full access to applications forms, computers and other equipment in the office.

"This is a very chaotic situation and refugees are treated like animals," Chauke said.

He said senior officials of the department would be hauled before the committee to explain the mess at the offices.

The committee's visit was prompted by Monday's service delivery demonstration by Zimbabwean refugees outside the offices.

- SAPA